Former Super Eagles midfielder, Mutiu
Adepoju, who is the Country Manager, La
Liga Office in Nigeria, talks about the deal
between the NPFL and the Spanish league in
this interview with ’TANA AIYEJINA
What are you doing at the moment?
I am the Country Manager of La Liga Office in
Nigeria. La Liga entered a partnership with the
Nigeria Professional Football League and they have
a commercial and technical deal, in which they
signed a five-year contract. It’s going to involve a
lot of things: youth development, helping the
Internally Displaced Persons, playing friendly games
between both leagues. The agreement was signed in
April and the office is in Abuja. We already had a
tour of Spain by NPFL selected players, where they
played friendly matches against Valencia and a
four-club tournament with Atletico Madrid, Malaga
and Cadiz.
What are your duties as Country Manager of
La Liga in Nigeria?
My duty is to represent La Liga in the country and
also look for opportunities and be the link between
the NPFL and La Liga. La Liga is opening to the
world; they have offices in China, Dubai, US. It is
the best league in the world and they hope they can
share their wealth of experience on how clubs can be
better managed. The visibility and presence of La
Liga worldwide has been making things work.
Football is a global game, which is the essence of all
these. The intention is to open offices in five
countries in Africa. Already two have been opened;
the African head office is in South Africa, which we
report to. It’s one of the biggest and unique things
happening to football at the moment.
What did the players and officials, who were
part of the NPFL tour to Spain in August,
benefit on the trip?
They learnt a lot in terms of professionalism. The
players were able to see the structure of the clubs.
The clubs chairmen were also taken along and they
attended a seminar. This will be done regularly; they
saw the La Liga clubs’ youth development structure,
the professionalism of the administrators, the
attitude of the players. Our players were able to
learn from the techniques and tactics of their
Spanish counterparts. They learnt a lot and I believe
that the players who made the trip will tell the
others that good things are happening. I don’t think
there is any league that has done that. Even the
EPL that Nigerians are so passionate about has not
done that. But La Liga has opened the gate to both
leagues and I believe it will be of mutual benefit to
both of them, especially for more of our players to be
able to play in La Liga. The youth development, in
which La Liga has a lot of programmes, will also
help our league as well.
A major problem in the Nigerian league is
payment of salaries and allowances to club
officials and players. Will this agreement
help clubs financially to eradicate this
disorder?
The reason for this is that there is no money and
almost all the clubs depend on government for
funding. We all know the problem, Nigeria is in
recession and money is not forthcoming, although
this issue has been on long ago. This partnership will
help but not directly by giving the clubs money to
spend. But with the structure and the way they do
their marketing, I believe that our club chairmen
will be able to learn from the seminars they
attended and replicate that in Nigeria. La Liga is
going to be sending club managers to share their
ideas with our club chairmen on how to get revenue.
In the aspect of coaching, they will bring their
coaches to teach our youth coaches on development of
young players. It’s a five-year partnership and I
believe after it expires, there will be an extension
because both parties will benefit from it. Right now,
our league is improving and the League Management
Company is doing everything to ensure that the clubs
follow the rules; clubs are signing players with
contracts and trying to pay them. In the last three
years, the LMC has done great things, they have
given money to the clubs and I believe the
partnership will be an open door for more things to
come.
The deal also had La Liga donating funds to
a club like El Kanemi, who have had issues
because of insurgency in north-eastern
Nigeria…
(Cuts in) It’s the La Liga Foundation that lent a
helping hand to El Kanemi. It’s like their Corporate
Social Responsibility. It’s a global brand opening to
the world and where there are problems, the
foundation comes out to help. Very soon, money
would be given to them. They are still working on
some papers from El Kanemi, which would be sent to
Spain. That is what is delaying it for now, but very
soon, it will be done.
You played in Spain for most part of your
career. What did La Liga imbibe in you as a
person and as a footballer?
It helped me a lot. I started here in Nigeria playing
for clubs and the Flying Eagles before I travelled to
Spain. When I got to Spain, I learnt more about
professionalism; the attitude and character of a
professional. And that is what has been carrying me
all along till this moment. When I was in Real
Madrid’s second team, I learnt a lot under my first
coach, Vicente del Bosque. I learnt a lot in the
White House. I also played at Racing Santander,
Real Sociedad and I adore these clubs because of
how they adopted me and took me in as part of
their system. I and my family have Spanish
citizenship. Spain gave me a lot and I believe if
other Nigerian players get to play there, they can
gain a lot too.
What’s the atmosphere like playing in the
Bernabeu stadium?
It’s unique; it’s what every player would love to
witness. The fans are always over you, supporting
you. Madrid are a champion club and playing there,
you must exhibit the character of a champion. You
cannot do less; you have to get better every season
and that is why the fans keep supporting the
players.
You never got the chance to play for Real
Madrid’s first team…
(Cuts in) Yes, I couldn’t play for them because only
three foreigners were allowed to play for the first
team then and they had so many good players.
During Radomir Antic’s era, I was about to be
promoted but because only three foreigners were
allowed, I couldn’t break in because I was a
foreigner then. But I played some friendly matches
with the first team, I went to pre-season training
with them and I learnt a lot. But I don’t regret not
playing for Madrid’s first team. I’m grateful to God
for what I have been able to achieve.
African footballers find it difficult playing
for Madrid. Are they not technically good
for the team?
It’s not that we are not technically good. There have
not been many opportunities. Africans have played
there before like the Diarras, Lassana and
Mahamadou. Though Lassana played for the French
national team, he has African roots, so is Karim
Benzema who is with them now. But Nigerians have
not been able to play for them. Maybe we need to
step up our game to be able to play in the top clubs
in Spain.
There are insinuations that current Nigerian
league players are not committed. As
someone who played in the league before
moving abroad, do you think there is a
difference between your time and now?
There is not much difference between now and when
I played in the league but what I see is that we
are not moving with the time. The structure and
mentality is different. We knew what was on ground
and my set of players tried to improve ourselves,
which is not happening now. Football evolves but we
are just stagnant, club football is not moving. Big
clubs like 3SC and Rangers should have great
facilities by now; these are things that should have
been done in the past. They should have youth
development programmes so that players who came
after us would learn from where we stopped. But
that is not happening right now. What we get from
the players is how they are going to help their
families; they are not thinking of the basics. That is
the difference. We learnt from the streets the hard
way. Now we have everything, but the structure is
not there.
What are the basic challenges that you face
as Country Manager, La Liga, in Nigeria?
We just started not quite long. We don’t really have
challenges. They are building the office and we are
doing everything to move forward. We don’t have
any challenge right now; there is support from the
South African office and Spain. At the moment, we
are trying to put in place office equipment like video
conferencing, so that we can have live conferences
with Spain, South Africa or other La Liga offices
worldwide. We are trying to install computers as
well.
