Football

Youth league will expose Nigerian players to the world — NYLC President, Adakosa

President/Founder, Nigeria Youth League Cup (NYLC), Robinson Adakosa has said the league will address all issues that are associated with the transfer of Nigerian players to clubs in Europe and others saying it’s time for club and Academy owners to enjoy the fruit of their labour.

Adakosa, who stated this at the launch fundraising gala held in Abuja during the weekend, said academy and club owners have lost fortune to agents whose sole aim was to reap where they didn’t sow through illegal transfer of the players.

He said the NYLC is not just coming to give a visible platform to players to display their talents to the world but also put a stop to slave contracts being signed by Nigerian and African players as well as coming up with a technology-driven League where players’ progress are monitored and properly documented.

“The NYLC was borne out of frustration from stakeholders especially Academy owners and footballers. On my own background, I have a football academy and it pains a lot after spending so much money, your resources after training those guys (footballers) and at some point when you expect to make some money out of your investment, then you see clubs and agents from abroad want to get these players free of charge. They’ll be asking for free agent and all like that.

“They would say, “I can’t really sign this player unless he’s a free agent”. So, it becomes frustrating. And because the players are also desperate, they also want to betray the club owners despite what we sunk into the business to make sure that they get the visibility they needed. But out of desperation, they want to betray their contracts, they want to sign with these agencies and clubs in Europe.

“Most times, these are not usually not too good for them because they are not the top clubs they are really looking out for, they are just coming to rip off the African market, the clubs and also the players. So, they end up giving them peanut. Sometimes, if you look around and see some of the guys you heard have gone to Europe, you just see some of them roaming the streets. Some of them being deported, some being involved in other criminal activities.

“And when you interview them, they would tell you they’ve been deceived, misled. And for us to stop this, I’ve interviewed stakeholders, Leagues, top agents, top clubs and the question was “Why is it that they don’t have value for Nigerian or African players?” They spend so much money signing the South American players with tens of millions of Euros and dollars but in Africa, reverse is the case. What they are saying is that we don’t have any organised league for youth in Africa and they said for that reason there is no visibility for the players. There is no way they can analyse or know about them and so it becomes difficult for them to invest so much money on them.

“It is in this line that we’ve decided to do the right thing and ensure that we have a Youth League and not just a youth league but a competitive one and not just a competitive one but a structured and technology-driven League because these days it’s about technology it’s not just about playing league. You might be talented, put players together but if you lack those technology, it would be difficult for you to give them that visibility they needed.

“We believe that with the kind of partnership we’ve already created, we’re sure this will be sustained. We are already with Bundesliga and Ligue 1 in terms of partnership. We’ve also spoken with recently with Latvia Premier League and signed an agreement with them. We want to ensure that we have a very good transition whereby we have our players moving to clubs properly so that every transfer we do will pass through the league system so we can monitor the transparency and the fairness as well. We don’t want a situation where clubs and players will be ripped off. We want to ensure that there is accountability and transparency as far players transfer are concerned.”

Adakosa said the competition is strictly for under 19 players. He said Physical Evaluation Committee have been put in place to check age cheat by ensuring that the essence of the League is not defeated.

“Actually it’s a U19 so the players should be under 19 years. We don’t have the cap for the minimum age but players should not be more than 18 years. We have given the clubs the eligibility for not more than five players at the age of 19. We have also put structure on ground to check age cheat through the Physical Evaluation Committee and ensure that these players are not older than the age we expect them to be,” Adakosa told Sporting Tribune.

Sporting Tribune reports that the inaugural edition of N-Youth League Cup billed to start on September 15, 2024 will end in April 2025 with the matches to be played on home and away basis by 30 youth teams with a total prize money of N40 million at stake.

While the winners will get N20 million, the second, third and the fourth-placed will be rewarded with N10 million, N7.5 million and N2.5 million in that order.

Group A

Lobi Stars FC of Makurdi

AS Roma Academy of Abuja

Dynamic African Stars FC of Abuja

Garden City Panthers of Abuja

Legacy Stars FC of Abuja

Joecas FC of Jos

Mees Palace FC of Jos

Plateau United FC of Jos

Shield City FC of Kano

Kwara Football Academy

Kwara United FC