By: Monday Nas Ozoya, MCIMSPA, MEASM, MIEEE.
The Ozoya Football Foundation has completed an initial grassroots football survey involving 148 clubs and academies across 21 Nigerian jurisdictions.
The findings should concern every football administrator, policymaker, sponsor and development partner:
β’ 80% had no active sponsor or technical partner.
β’ 96.5% did not own their primary training ground.
β’ 58% trained mainly on red dirt or earth pitches.
β’ Only 30% reported registration with a state football association.
β’ Only about 10% reported access to a CAF-licensed coach.
β’ One in five relied on an unqualified or community coach as their highest coaching resource.
β’ 62% operated male teams only.
β’ Almost half had no affiliated referee or match official.
Yet these organisations reported approximately 5,392 active players, with a median of 35 players per organisation.
The participation base exists. The structure around it remains fragile.
These findings raise a fundamental question: How can Nigeria professionalise a football pathway that has not been properly counted, verified, regulated, protected or financed?
Talent identification alone will not solve these problems. Scouting more children without improving coaching, safeguarding, facilities, leagues and club administration simply moves talented players into an unstable system.
The registration figures also require careful discussion. Should state FA registration become a condition for receiving football development support? Or would this exclude community organisations already doing valuable work without access to an effective registration pathway?
The sponsorship gap presents another challenge. Perhaps grassroots football is not commercially unattractive. Perhaps it has not yet been organised, documented and presented in a form that investors can trust.
Verified clubs could be grouped into structured leagues and development portfolios. Sponsors could then receive measurable information about participation, geographical reach, facilities, safeguarding compliance and social impact.
Girlsβ football must also be counted independently. Reporting that an organisation serves βmale and female teamsβ does not tell us how many girls participate, how often they train, or whether they receive comparable coaching, facilities, and competition opportunities.
This survey is a sample, not yet a complete national census. The responses are self-reported and geographically uneven. Kaduna and Lagos account for more than half of the organisations represented. Sixteen states were not covered.
However, the sample provides a credible starting point.
The next phase must include verification, wider state coverage, separate player data by age and sex, coaching licence checks, facility assessments, safeguarding standards and anonymised public reporting.
Three questions for Nigerian football stakeholders:
1. Who should be responsible for maintaining a verified national register of grassroots clubs and academies?
2. Should public and commercial support depend on registration, safeguarding and financial accountability?
3. How can grassroots football be organised into an investable development system without excluding genuine community clubs?
We cannot develop what we have not counted. We cannot fund what we have not structured. We cannot protect what we have not regulated.
What should the Ozoya Football Foundation prioritise in Phase Two of the census
