Nigeria Players Union, the National Association of Nigeria Professional Footballers, NANPF has commenced plans to activate its Semi-Professional Footballers DataBase Scheme for grass root Players, following numerous complains received from Grassroot Football Clubs over well-orchestrated moves by some unscrupulous Players agents working in conjunction with some individuals in the system to deny them of their rights to training and solidarity compensation in accordance with article 7 of FIFA regulations governing the status and transfer of Professional Footballers.
The Scheme which was initially started in 2014, following its approval by the Nigeria Football Federation was suspended due to some logistics challenges in its implementation. However in view of the present-day features of constant breaches occasioned due to descrepances observed in the information posted in the Players Passport, which in most cases excludes some training clubs from benefiting from the training and solidarity compensation that was supposed to come to them.
It is important to note that article 7 of FIFA regulations governing the status and transfer of Professional Footballers stipulates that all registering Association is obliged to provide the club of which the player is registered with a player passport containing the relevant details of the player. The player passport shall indicate the club(s) for which the player has been registered since the season of his 12th birthday. If a birthday falls between sessions, the player shall be listed in the Player’s passport for the club, for which he was registered in the season following the birthday
The Union has, therefore, thought it wise to activate the Semi-Professional Footballers DataBase Scheme to protect the economic rights of the grassroots Football Clubs who register their players with the Scheme as a backup mechanism in making the right information of the player’s Career trajectory from age 12 available to the relevant football authorities to avoid falsified and misleading information and as well help the player avoid the unnecessary pressure of making a decision that could expose and endanger their career
The Plans and Strategy to kick start the Scheme will be concluded during the Annual General Assembly of the Union on 29th of August 2020.
