12/10/2003

The National association of Nigerian footballers has the honour and pleasure to introduce to you and also invite your club to participate

THE NIGERIAN FOOTBALL COLLEGE PARTNERSHIP FOR TALENT FACILITATION

The National association of Nigerian footballers has the honour and pleasure to introduce to you and also invite your club to participate in its talent facilitation programme through our Nigerian football college, the best equipped and researched Football College in the whole of Africa.

THE VISION

There is a high failure rate of players transition from youth football to professional football in Africa. Our investigation has traced this negative development in African football to almost zero percent of the presence of professionals handling the training and education of young players in Nigeria and other African countries, professional football imposes challenges that are both physical and intellectual to football players. Our investigation revealed that the average African players has all it takes to meet the physical challenges or demands of the game, but the same can not be said of his ability to cope with the intellectual demands of the game, due to a faulty foundational preparation.

For the past five to six years, the National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF) the professional body of players in Nigeria committed to the protection and promotion of the welfare of players and by extension, the overall development of the game in Nigeria has put in place programmes for the development of Nigerian youths with the potentials of becoming professional players in the near future.

Some of these programmes include “football in the Community Project”, “Talent facilitation project”, “The school to Football pitch programme” and the “NANF grassroot project”. The operation of these projects hinged on the twin concept of the “Education of our young players along academic discipline” and “the development of their football skills” over the years has culminated in the building of a football institution (The National Football College) that would serve as the most veritable platform for their training and development of their football skills as well as their social and Academic skills simultaneously.

THE CHALLENGE

 The function of the “Nigerian Football College” can be likened to a factory where raw materials are processed to produce a required product.

The essence of the youth football programme established by NANF is primarily to discover football talents, which are subsequently processed at the “Nigerian Football College” to bring out the best in the players.

For the past 5 years, the players Union (NANF) through its various youth programmes from competitors to developmental has discovered and produced players for all categories of the National teams including some professional football clubs within and outside Nigeria.