Nigeria Premier Football League clubs must have youth teams – Gbenga Elegbeleye

By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde

The Chairman of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), Honourable Gbenga Elegbeleye has confirmed that all clubs in the top=tier league are required to have youth teams ahead of next season.

The 2023/2024 league season will kick off on September 9 across the country after the draw for next season was conducted on Tuesday and the NPFL boss announced plans to oragnise a junior league for the clubs’ youth teams.

“We hope to improve on what we did last season, we are bringing a new model into the season by playing the junior league, every clubs are expected to have under 17 teams and we have promised to showcase the best talent we have,” Elegbeleye told BSN Sports.

“The feeders’ team will be playing their league this season at the zones and the winner of each zone will come to play the playoff to determine the final.

“We want to improve on the support we gave to referees last season, we still want to maintain the 100 million naira we gave to the winner last year, that is the minimum we can give we may increase it this season.”

While speaking on live streaming of league games next season, Elegbeleye said there will be a big announcement on the league’s broadcast streaming.

“It gladdens my heart to again harp on the broadcast streaming deal with Propel Sports Africa which as of today, has deployed cameras to ten venues as a start-up,” he continued.

“They plan to have a camera in each Stadium in the long run while we work out modalities to move cameras from one location to the nearest. So far the AI Cameras have been deployed, installed, and tested in Lagos, Ibadan, Benin, Uyo, and Aba. Other locations are Ilorin, Jos, Gombe, Katsina, and Kano.

“The distribution covers the geographical zones. In the days ahead, there will be a big announcement coming on the Broadcast Streaming deal.”