Nigeria’s third-tier football league, Nationwide League One (NLO), has unveiled plans to ease players’ agents and scouts’ activities with a new technological innovation ahead of the 2023 season slated to begin on May 3 at Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano.
The NLO said the innovation would afford football scouts/agents access to various categories of U-19 footballers with full options and a history of players through a technology platform that allows the agent/scout to assess their targets without being physically present.
Speaking on the innovation while unveiling fixtures of the 2023 season, scheduled to begin on May 3 at Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano, NLO’s Media Officer, Abdulgafar Oladimeji, said the introduction of the technological scouting device was primarily intended to expose the skills and talents of young footballers in the league to international clubs.
Oladimeji revealed that with the innovation, interested agents scouting players in the country would easily do so through the Internet.
“Gone are the days when international club owners are invited to watch and pick talented players. NLO has come up with a website through which international clubs watch live matches and make their choices of talented players,” he said.
Oladimeji, who advocated intensive participation of media in this year’s NLO season, said the body has gone digital, with the involvement of serious-minded sponsors, who have invested enough resources for the success of the league.
He said: “No football project can prosper without the media. The sponsors come in due to the extent of media coverage. It is now mandatory that any club participating in the NLO league must have a media department.”
The fixtures unveiled at the event show that the star match of the season will feature Kwankwassiyya FC and Kano Pillars Juniors at Sani Abacha Stadium on May 3.
Oladimeji said eight teams are expected to trade tackles in Kano, just as in other states across the north, adding that the top teams in the states will participate in an inter-state competition from where four teams each will emerge to represent the north in the national competition.
He reaffirmed NLO’s determination to ensure that only players of 19 years and below are featured in the league, adding that the body has introduced anti-forgery procedures that will block tendencies of fraud and corruption in the licensing process.
