Perspective from Sport

There are outcry for private ownership of football clubs in Nigeria. The reasons for these are justifiable when you take into account that 95% of the clubs are state-owned with the exception of MFM FC, Ikorodu United, Ifeanyi Ubah United and Giwa FC - Expelled from the League) There have been long-standing issues with state ownership, one of them being welfare challenges - especially of the players and coaches. Majority of the clubs depends on the state government for their funding, and if you are conversant with the trend within Nigeria's state of the economy, you will realise that the state governments are struggling to pay the wages of civil servant .Therefore the  players and coaches salaries are probably the least on their minds.  For the average Nigerian League follower, the  ideal is for the majority of the clubs to be privately owned for two main reasons; firstly, the private clubs have not had any history of owing their staff and secondl...

As 2016 shapes up to be a pivotal year in player and coaching development in the United States, Planet Fútbol dives into just what American clubs and the federation are doing in their quest to evolve as a soccer nation. This is the second of a three-part series on the subject. The first, on how audit firm Double PASS is bringing its methods to U.S. Soccer, can be read here . As Major League Soccer enters its third decade of existence, league officials continually push youth development as the next big challenge to conquer. Every franchise runs its own fully funded academy at no cost to the players, but to continue raising standards within those academies, MLS entered into a partnership with the French Football Federation in 2013. The agreement allows MLS academy directors and coaches to complete the Elite Formation Coaching License, administered by the French federation. In 2015, the second cycle of MLS coaches began the licensing process to earn the equivalent of a UEFA Pro Lic...

Iceland has taken the football world by storm with their Cinderella experience at the current Euro 2016. The question that could be on everyone lips would be; Did the Viking nation get to this stage accidentally? Was it a fluke? We could ask or speculate on the reason behind Iceland current success but they are actually in the quarter-final at the expense of England. I will give a brief information to illustrate that their performance isn't coincidental or by luck. Before the fall of the Icelandic bank, they had invested in training coaches who trains young talents, they made the best of their adverse weather situation and built indoors stadiums and it is yielding  dividends now. Lagaback in the Nigeria's Colours I will not dwell much on the developmental aspect of Iceland football but focus on the man that has led Iceland to their most iconic experience ever - He is Lars Lagarback. I need to highlight here that I am not an advocate for a foreign manager far from it, b...