Before the advent of Academies, what we had in the country were boys club, where young aspiring players go to play among themselves without any order. The emphasis then is to play matches until the lucky ones are spotted. 

With the coming of Academies, the trend changed. Players are trained in a more formal order, and their development is gradual and monitored. 

Football Academy is the place where young footballers go to learn the right techniques and tactics to prepare themselves for a professional career in the sport.

Most young people enrol into a Football Academy for one basic reason: to learn how to become world-class professional footballers.

 So, in setting up an Academy, it is important to ensure that  the academy will be able to fulfill this cardinal purpose.

An academy is not a football club, where the emphasis is more on winning trophies and building such a brand that is attractive to fans and sponsors. An academy is a school. A place of learning, grooming and developing future footballers.

Like in every institution of learning there should be a minimum standard every academy should meet for accreditation and approval.

In an ideal setting, It is not about employing just any qualified coach but there are developmental coaches specially trained to groom young players, and the standard facilities are provided to support the speedy development of the players. 

After the recent FIFA talent development program held in Abuja, report emerged the Nigeria Football Federation are on the verge of scrapping football Academies in Nigeria. 

The NFF President was  quoted as saying at the program that the days of operating football academies without proper structures and required standard will soon be over in Nigeria. 

The NFF boss said his Board has the plans of also empowering the football academies operating under the right model.

“We are going to empower football academies and encourage them to run their academies professionally. NFF will provide the right guidelines to administer academy football professionally. Any football academy that does not meet up with the required standard that the NFF will put in place will no longer operate in Nigeria. We will start the process from January, 2024. We want the football academies to be administered under outmost sincerity and honesty.

Gusau was further quoted as saying  a unit under the Technical Department of the Federation will be responsible for this noble task of eradicating fake football academies.

Gusau was only reiterating what has been in place before. Those who were lettered enough in 2008 or there about, are fully aware that the NFF has never run short of providing guidelines for the establishment of football Academies in the country. 

The Football body once provided some guidelines for the establishment of football Academies in country. The provisions of that guidelines were very explicit, and the implementation was domiciled with the States Football Associations. 

The State FAs were given the responsibilities of registration and supervision of these Academies. 

The guidelines then were enough for anyone who would want to establish a football academy to follow. The well publicized guidelines made provision for equipments, materials, and personnels needed to establish an football academy. The problem with that guideline was the implementation and coordination which I believed is where the NFF needs to improve on. Good enough, Gusau has hinted on the creation of a Unit under the Technical Department of NFF to supervise these Academies. This is a welcome development, but they will still have to work with the State FAs to carry out the task.

 The issue remains that allowing the State FAs to supervise such a laudable program will amount to nullity, and will be dead on arrival.

The problem is that there is no way such a program can be organized without the State FAs. Because, the NFF would not have the manpower to supervise or coordinate the Academies at the state levels.

The new Unit of the Nigeria Football Federation can  serve as an enforcement agency, to ensure that the right things are done to bring Academy football in country to the international acceptable standards.