Gbenga Elegbeleye, Chairman of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) has revealed the reasons behind the establishment of the NPFL Youth League which is still getting plaudits from football stakeholders.
Elegbeleye spoke at the World Football Summit in Madrid, Spain. The NPFL boss was a panelist at the event and he also spoke to journalists at the mixed zone. He said the league wants to have a system which will feed itself and churn out stars like Osimhen, Lookman and others.
“Our own in Nigeria is a developing football economy. I won’t say we are there yet but we are trying to be there. The truth is that we look at our situation and the younger generation needs to be exposed.
“That is the reason for starting the youth league and we feel that the clubs must have a feeder team. This feeder team should be boys that will graduate to the senior team and perhaps play in the senior teams later on for Nigeria.
“But if you don’t have a system that is growing the younger generation, then that system is not productive enough. You cannot just be playing football, signing players from other teams.
“Why not having your own academy or feeder team like most European clubs do? That is why we are trying to have a growing system of talents because they abound in Nigeria and we feel the best way to go is to create opportunities for them to compete,” he said.
The NPFL Youth League began with zonal mini tournaments which produced teams for the super six playoffs. The former Director General of the National Sports Commission explained why the league began with the regional format, noting that the rigours of travel was a key factor.
“That is why instead of traveling long distances — because Nigeria is a vast country, we decided to organize zonal playoffs with clubs that fall within the same zones so that the boys will travel for less distance.
“The clubs will meet, 6 clubs have emerged. We have three zones that will be divided into two zones, then the top two of all the zones will in the coming weeks, maybe in December converge in a place to play what we call the Super Six and then the champion of the Youth League will emerge.
“That’s the opportunity we want to give the clubs to have candidates that grow from their system that can play in the senior team,” he concluded.
Selected players from the Youth League are currently in Abeokuta under the watchful eyes of experienced tactician, Eugene Agagbe.