Top officials of AS Roma of Italy have come out to throw more light on the agreement they signed with Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), as the Serie A club’s chief global sport officer, Manolo Zubiria, as well as head of academy, Massimo Tarantino and head of strategy, Paul Rogers, say the deal is for public relations, football development and technical exchange, megasportsarena.com reports.
The trappings also entail information technology, where Roma has become the first football club outside Africa to run a social media page in Pidgin English, while also lining up special interactive trappings for the Su[per Eagles and making plans for their team to embark on a tour of Nigeria.
The NFF also stated that the multi-year partnership, which was unveiled on Friday in Abuja, will see the soccer body and Roma collaborate together on and off the pitch, with one long term objective being for the club to help further grow and improve all levels of football in Nigeria.
Under the terms of the understanding, both parties will share football, business and media expertise, with Roma offering the NFF technical and operational support and advice in the areas of youth coaching, player development, football administration and digital media best practices.
In return, the NFF will also collaborate with the AS Roma in their projects and development Initiatives in Nigeria and, in the coming months, senior officials of the Nigerian soccer body will travel to the Italian capital, Rome, to observe the club’s award-winning youth academy.
Roma will also work with the NFF to help introduce best practices for developing elite talent in order to improve the quality of players available to our domestic clubs and indeed national squad at all age groups.
The Italian club, which once had former Golden Eaglets’ striker, Aliyu Datti Mohammed on their cards, and still hold terms of the contract of Rio 2016 bronze medalist, Sadiq Umar, will also host knowledge-sharing sessions on football business and administration in Rome and set up digital and social media workshops in Nigeria for local clubs and officials.
Zubiria added: “This promises to be an exciting and ground-breaking partnership for both parties. This club is known throughout football for having one of the most accomplished youth development programmes in the world.
“Nigeria is a real football nation and we’re looking forward to sharing best practices in elite talent development and football business and administration with the Nigerian Football Federation.
“In recent years, Roma has developed more players who’ve gone on to play professionally than any other club in Italy. We’re also open to working with the NFF and their partners to assess the feasibility of one day opening an official AS Roma academy in Nigeria.”
Rogers, who traveled to Abuja alongside Massimo Tarantino to agree the partnership, added: “This partnership is the natural evolution of the great relationship between the NFF and Roma that began when Roma announced that with Italy absent from the World Cup, we would be supporting Nigeria.
“Roma’s digital team began working with the Super Eagles in 2018 on their social media coverage of the World Cup and earlier this year, we again worked with Nigeria during the Africa Cup of Nations.
“Through our unique use of social media, and initially using the hashtag #ForzaSuperEagles, we’ve developed an incredible and fun rapport with Nigerian football fans, media and celebrities and earlier this year we became the first club outside of Nigeria to launch an official Pidgin account, which is managed in Lagos.
“Jim Pallotta, Roma’s President, has made no secret of his wish to see Roma play a match in Nigeria as a thank you to the Nigerian fans for the support they have shown us and it would be great if through this partnership, we can make that happen.”
