NPFL, LaLiga sign five-year technical, commercial partnership 

Top representatives of the governments of Nigeria and Spain were on hand to witness the landmark signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a five-year technical and commercial partnership between the League Management Company of Nigeria (LMC) and the Spanish League Board (LFP) yesterday at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.

While Chairman of the LMC singed for the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), Shehu Dikko, the President of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, signed for the Spanish League with Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, and the Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Alfonso  
Barnuevo Sebastian de Erice counter- signing as witnesses for their respective national leagues.

Highlighting the long-standing sporting relationship between the two leagues was the presence of some former Nigerian international players who at some stages in the past played for LaLiga clubs.

These include Victor Ikpeba, who played for Real Betis, Mutiu Adepoju, who played for Racing Santander and Real Sociedad, Gbenga Okunowo and Haruna Babangida, both of whom played for Barcelona.

While Dalung described the relationship as “a new page in the history of football administration in Nigeria, Banuevo offered assurances that the partnership will produce “a win-win outcome” for both Nigeria and Spain.

For Dikko, the NPFL and LaLiga partnership marks the beginning of “a journey through a new road hitherto not travelled in an effort to deliver on our mandate to improve the quality and fortunes of the football league in Nigeria along international best practices.

“We are pleased to be leading reforms and to achieve that, we decided to align with global best practices by emulating those doing things well and right. We have a lot to learn and benefit from the LaLiga and we believe that the LaLiga also has some things to learn from us.”

The pact will focus on key areas of capacity development, training for coaches and club administrators; inter-club exchanges and commercial activities including joint marketing.