ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Everton Lagos: The case for a feeder team?

This is an idea that I think the club could use to boost their profile in Nigeria, inspired by the relationship Ajax have with Ajax Cape Town which saw Steven Pienaar move to Amsterdam. The reason I've chosen Nigeria is because they love their football and we currently have three Nigerian players in our ranks (Joseph Yobo, Victor Anichebe and Hope Akpan) one of whom is the Super Eagles captain and there is a possibility we will be adding Aiyegbeni Yakubu to that list tomorrow.

The largest city in Nigeria is Lagos. The population is currently around 16M but is expected to be 20M by 2010. They are a footballing city and some of the prospects include Taribo West, Obafemi Martins and our very own Victor Anichebe.

They had a football club last year called Julius Berger FC in the Nigeria Premier League, however the construction company that owns the club is going through hard financial times and in order to stabilise it, they have had to introduce cutbacks, one of which is severing the ties with the football club. The club itself is small and only seats 5,000 people although when in the African Champions League they easily filled a nearby stadium with 45,000. There is a lot of potential for a club in Lagos.

Why can?t Everton take over the 'running' of the club, by this I mean introduce ?brand Everton? to the Lagos people. What this would consist of in its simplest form is for a club name change, the Lagos people are not particularly attached to the club in its present form as it is only for friends and family of people who work for Julius Berger. By naming the team ?Everton Lagos? we would generate interest in the team and has it has ?Lagos? in the name the people would feel their city has an identity with the club. To register a club as a limited liability company with the Corporate Affairs Commission with the name ?Lagos? requires the approval of the state government but I am confident that they would approve it as it would benefit the community by having such an established football club associated with the area.

At this time there are problems in Nigeria as they do not have access to much Premier League football on television due to one of the television companies HiTV messing up the contract and focus may be on their domestic league instead, in which case it is an opportunity that we can not miss. Benefits would include Everton gaining a foothold in the Nigerian market and allow us to keep an eye out for talents for the future (coincidentally, Yakubu was a previously Julius Berger player) and it would cost little to run in the long run.

Some sections say that Nigeria is corrupt and that finding the right person to run the club over there would be difficult but surely Joseph Yobo (who often visits his hometown of Kano to perform charity work), Victor Anichebe (who has family in Lagos) or possibly even Dovecot?s own Hope Akpan would know of somebody who could arrange it and make a good job of it. I would have suggested Amokachi as manager but he has recently took over as manager of Nigeria?s Premier club Enyimba ? incidentally they are known as ?The People?s Elephant!

Thanks for reading.
Louis Platt, West Kirby Posted 22/08/2007 at 20:56:32

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Comments

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Steve Ferns
1 Posted 22/08/2007 at 23:06:45

i can see where you are coming from, but i’m afraid it will never happen. Also, the best place for a feeder club is surely China. The country is really about to take off and you’d want to be part of the bandwagon early. I believe an Eastern Team will win the World Cup by 2020.

rob
2 Posted 22/08/2007 at 23:11:40

what a great idea !
any chance moyes can have a read also you would improve revenue in the club because people in lagos would want the everton shirts or everton merchandise and also improves evertons image overseas
nice post ! x

David Barks
3 Posted 22/08/2007 at 23:26:40

Not a bad idea at all, although I do agree with Steve that Asia would be best for economic growth. But really not a bad idea in Nigeria either, Africa are putting out some great footballers these days. If I were you I would submit that letter to Everton, it couldn’t hurt.

Stuie Mann
4 Posted 22/08/2007 at 23:29:49

Good idea indeed. I have been to Lagos and other parts of Nigeria and they love there football and Joseph Yobo in particular. One Sugar mill employee roster has the best selection of out of date everton shirts going thanks to me. But, one thing, don’t expect bumper revenue from shirt sales, there’s no money there to exploit and a million and one people making knock off shirts.

Steve Ferns
5 Posted 22/08/2007 at 23:30:59

I can tell you why it won’t work: 3rd party ownership. What happens in Africa and South America is these companies sign up young kids to contracts and tout them all over europe (africa = france or Russia and South America = Spain). If we had a side out there, all the best players would still be signed up by these companies. That’s world football for you these days.

Oliver McAdam
6 Posted 23/08/2007 at 00:22:13

Steve is correct, however it is much more brutal than that. Football in African nations such as Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Senegal etc is controlled by big business, to such an extent that players are signed up as kids, moved into European nations and the vast majority don’t make it and these wannabe football players end up on the streets. Think agents have too much power in this country, in Africa its extrodinary, its basically slavery in the 21st Century. So, even if everton could strike a deal to get these players (with an agent) I would be totally against it, as it is totally un-ethical, not just in football terms but on human rights grounds.

Oliver McAdam
7 Posted 23/08/2007 at 00:31:44

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2099703,00.html

This is an article from the observer which goes into detail over this issue. Worth a read.

Steve Ferns
8 Posted 23/08/2007 at 00:44:58

Cheers for the link, it was a chilling read.

Did you see the BBC3 programme on African Footy ages ago, probably when the African Nations was last on. That was a real eye opener. I think one programme followed togo (or whoever Lomana tresor Lua Lua plays for) and the players for the national team had a friendly in europe, which was their first in years (belgium if my memory serves me well). A number of the players did a bunk, so desperate are they to leave their home country and seek the european riches. Apparently, they dissapear underground for a year and then reappear under a different name and have papers from a different country.

On a similar Note, isn’t the Yak a product of the Isreali "youth system"? Is he really nigerian and therefore is he really 24?

Thommo
9 Posted 23/08/2007 at 07:05:02

It really doesn’t matter where such a team may be as it isn’t and never has been Everton’s intention to sponsor any team. There have been numerous requests in the past for balls, corner flags, jerseys but Everton always reply that it is not the Club’s policy to respond to such requests. When I was first made aware of this it was made even worse as Shankly used to support, I think, three such teams out of his own pocket. After all, it’s PR, and if you’ve lived overseas you’ll know, Everton don’t do it.
Anyone out there know if Home Farm ever benefited from it?

Joe C
10 Posted 23/08/2007 at 09:20:42

When are you going to ask for my sort code and bank account details?

Stan Sheppard
11 Posted 23/08/2007 at 09:46:54

Definately a good idea in principle. Its a pity things appear to be the way they are. The post has highlighted yet another way Africa is exploited.
Cheers Louis et al.

Onyeka Anichebe
12 Posted 23/08/2007 at 10:13:57

Great message you took the words right out of mouth Louis. It is true Africans esp Nigerians love football. Everton should maximise the fact that they have some of the best Nigerian players now and try and increase there support in the biggest African Nation. Not merely to increase revenue but also to give back to the nation and maybe just maybe help those in need. If Rio Ferdinand can do it I?m sure Everton with the help of Yobo, Anichebe and Yakubu can.