Arsenal Soccer School is training 30 Nigerian coaches in order to improve the quality of play in the country’s local leagues.
Arsenal’s UEFA Licensed Coach, Simon McManus is in charge of the technical delivery and implementation of ‘Play the Arsenal Way’.
McManus who has been working across Arsenal’s Soccer School locations in 22 countries across 5 continents, lamented that the Nigerian Proffessional Football League (NPFL) was not producing enough goals, adding that spectators always wanted goals.
While noting that the NPFL averaged a goal per game, he stressed that his job was to help the coaches play attacking football that will produce more goals.
"We are not here to tell you to change your way to Arsenal way but to help you improve your abilities," he said. "We want to try to show you how to play in the attacking way just as Arsenal play."
Also in the technical team from Arsenal is James Colinese, an FA Level 1 and Level 3 Talent Identification coach and Ryan Whelan.
30 participants, drawn from the local league in Nigeria are attending the 3-day clinic which commenced today and will end on Thursday.
The Portfolio Manager National Premium Lager Brands, Nigerian Breweries, Tokunbo Adodo said the coaching clinic is part of the brand’s continued support for the Nigerian league, since signing a landmark partnership in 2016.
He said the clinic will equip local football coaches and technical supervisors with the tactical knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the game and improve the overall quality of Nigeria’s local football league.
“We are very proud to have partnered with Arsenal and the NPFL on this coaching clinic. The coaching clinic is purely a technical football session to facilitate knowledge transfer between our foreign football club partners and our own football league to develop the quality of the local league. We are confident that this will significantly improve the technical expertise of our local coaches,” Adodo said.
President of the League Management Company, Mallam Shehu Dikko, said: “The coaching clinic in partnership with Star Lager beer and Arsenal is a very good thing for Nigeria’s football."
He said the LMC was committed to improving the Nigerian football league and as such will go the extra mile to ensure capacity-building events like this to hold regularly.
He emphasized the need for clubs to score more goals in order to create excitement in the league, adding that "I hope we will see more goals in the league after this clinic."
