How NPFL Clubs Can Generate More Revenue (Part 4)
This is a continuation of the series on how the Nigeria Professional League can generate more revenue and start being sustainable without government intervention. You can read the first part of the series here, the second part of the series here and the third part here
How NPFL Clubs Can Earn More from Youth Development and Player Transfers
One of the big problems Nigerian footballers and even African footballers face is age falsification. I tried dipping my hands in running a football academy with a friend and it is capital intensive. The returns won’t come immediately, so you need buffer funds for like 3 years, which we couldn’t afford.
One of the agents we brought then categorically told us that any player aged 22 in Nigeria should forget about playing in Europe topflight leagues because they assume he is 25 – 27 years old. This is why they prefer to sign teenagers. Signing a 18 years old means they are signing 21 – 23 years old which is still good for business. They can easily get 8 years of solid playing time compared to the former.
Youth development is a long-term revenue engine in football, especially for teams in developing leagues.
Foreign clubs earn millions from player sales, loan deals, training compensation, and solidarity payments. NPFL clubs barely tap into this revenue engine because their youth structures are either weak, undocumented, inexistent, or incomplete.
A $100,000 youth player sale can yield millions of dollars in sell-on fee in the nearest future.
Just like I explained with my youth academy, a functional youth system must attract scouts, agents, partnerships with foreign clubs, and good players to position themselves as a talent factory.
Build a Real Youth Structure
Aside from Remo Stars and a couple of other NPFL clubs, there are no active lower age grades clubs out there. They may have on paper but do not function as a real youth team.
Remo stars have Beyond Limits football academy and they are well structured that they won the NNL which is Nigeria tier 2 league. They sold their slot for the NPFL due to the rule barring same club ownership in the NPFL.
A real youth structure requires:
- Regular training sessions
- Licensed youth coaches
- Education
- Constant age-grade competitions
- Documented player records
- Health and fitness tracking
Youth teams are an integral part of any football club and must be treated as such.
Documentation
Whenever a homegrown player moves abroad, you often see ownership war on such player. This is due to incomplete documentation. A player might have signed ownership rights to an academy somewhere, then runs to another and moves to Europe. It leads to ownership tussle between both academies.
It make clubs lose money when they cannot prove player ownership. This is why documentation is a must.
Documentation must include:
- Birth certificates
- Registration forms
- Contract copies
- Match appearance records
- Video highlights
- Medical history
Proper documentation allows you to claim compensation when the homegrown player moves abroad and saves you from ownership tussle stress.
FIFA rules dictate that any club that played a role in a player development between the ages of 12 and 23 is entitled to five percent of any subsequent transfer fee as training compensation.
Florian Wirtz transfer to Liverpool could see FC Koln netting a whooping 5.8million euros. He played for them from age 7 to 17. That shows you what youth development is all about.
Sell Players with Clear Transfer Agreements
Check through transfermarkt website and the whole NPFL transfer income for 25/26 season is 50,000 euros. That is for a player sale made by Remo stars. Transfer dealings in the NPFL are made secret with little details been made publicly available.
Transfer deals must include:
- Transfer fee
- Sell-on clause
- Performance bonuses
A sell-on clause ensures the club earns money if the player moves again and this is very important if the player is still young. Most African clubs lose millions because they transfer players outright without future rights. A 10% sell-on clause can net a club millions if the player eventually moves big.
Utilize Loan deals to create short-term incomes
Loans are massively underrated in Nigerian football. Young players in the club with no real chance of making the senior team can be loaned to foreign academies or lower division teams. This reduces the club wage bills and at the same time generates small income for them via loan fee.
It also gives the player exposure and playing time that will increase his/her transfer value
Produce High-Quality Video Footage
In a league with little TV coverage, football scouts and agents rely on the club video footage to make decisions. This is why NPFL clubs must invest in their media team to produce high quality footage.
Shola Adelani formerly with Ikorodu city recently moved to Bulgarian side Botev Plovdiv and the Ikorodu city highlights video was shambolic. I have watched Shola played on a couple of occasions and I have a better video collection than what the media team posted.
NPFL clubs must invest in basic video production:
- Match highlights
- Training clips
- Tactical breakdowns
- Player profile videos
A well-edited 4–6-minute highlight reel increases visibility and transfer opportunities. The value it generates outweighs the cost of setting it up.
Football is all about set piece now and I have seen at least 2 players with throw-in accuracy than the famed Rory Delap. Unfortunately, they don’t have any footage out there.
Track Solidarity and Training Compensation Payments
I used Florian Wirtz as an example of what a club can get as training compensation according to FIFA rules. Many NPFL clubs lack documentation and failure to track these payments make them lose money. There is a timeline for claiming the money and giving FIFA the necessary evidence.
Many NPFL clubs lose these payments because they:
- never documented the player
- do not track transfers abroad
- do not claim the payments on time
It won’t hurt to have a small office that tracks the payments.
Promote Youth Players into the Senior Team
Imagine a football club wanting to sign Lamine Yamal now or Leo Messi when he first came into the limelight.
They are products of the famed La Masia Academy. You don’t spend on transfers and also reduces your wage cost when you promote talent instead of going for inflated signings.
A well-structured youth academy can generate revenue the main club might not generate in its lifetime for most NPFL clubs. Kunle Soname who owns both Beyond Limits Academy and Remo Stars said that Beyond Limits Academy revenue powers Remo stars and that is the plain truth.
A structured Academy is a recurring revenue for you and turns you into a talent factory that sees foreign clubs come to try and sign your players
Sometimes, I wish I had some solid financial backing or good liquidity to run the academy well.
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