Chief Operating Officer of the Nationwide League One, Shola Ogunnowo says teams in the division can benefit from the model English football league has in place for youth development.
The NLO COO and five NLO club owners and manager who are in the UK on a 8-day business tour facilitated by London-based NVA Sports & Entertainment Group (NVA SEG), on Tuesday were at the English Football Association training ground, St. George Park in the city of Burton on the invite of Burton Albion FC.
They later saw Burton Albion maul Bradford City 4-0 in the English Football League Trophy game at the Pirelli Stadium.
“So delighted to see the development of Burton Albion for over 56 years and we are happy that the chairman and every member of the club are doing things the lower league clubs in Nigeria can learn from.
“Most especially in the player’s development, right from age seven to nine, which is very encouraging and the way the technical crew and Head of the Academy are taking things around the youths and transitioning these talents to the main team, is fantastic.
“We are looking at how both teams can work with some of these clubs in the NLO for player development, players and coaches exchange and a lot more.”
Ogunnowo said further, that Nigeria and its youths are very active in football in Africa.
“Nigerian players want to develop their careers as the country has won more trophies at youth level of world football, this goes to show that the average youth in the most populous black nation wants to play football, and of course, Nigerians are die-hard fans of the beautiful game.
“We have over a 70million youths and are active in football and we are the biggest in Africa, we also want to learn more from English football.
“We have been to Sheffield United, MK Dons, and here in Burton and we are marvelled by what we have seen, it can only be compared to one of the best-organized clubs in the UK.
“We will love to bring one of our best youth teams to come to play the Burton U19 team.”
