ABS, La Planet sign MoU on players development

Abubakar Bukola Saraki (ABS) Ilorin FC and La Planet Sport Academia, a sport academy based in Kwara have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on exchange of players for developmental purposes.


The signing of the MoU which took place in Ilorin on Tuesday, attracted sports stakeholders across the state and some business moguls.


In the agreement entered in the MoU, La Planet Sport Academia shall be sending players for developmental purposes to ABS Ilorin FC.


According to the MoU, ABS Ilorin FC has agreed to be giving technical support to coaches and players of La Planet Sport Academia while it will also build a football business relationship with the academy.


Speaking at the ceremony, the Kwara Director of Sports, Malam Tunde Kazeem, said the sports council would continue to give support to persons or groups that is showing interest in development of athletes especially at the grassroots.


He described the signing of the MoU as one of the best event in the history of sports in the state and thanked both parties for taking interest in developing players in the state.


Speaking after signing of the MoU, the ABS Director of Football, Alloy Chukwuemeka, said the club would continue to run professionally and in line with the details and visions of its proprietor, Dr Bukola Saraki.


Chukwuemeka explained that Dr Saraki had directed that the club be run professionally in such a way that other clubs will emulate.


He said since he joined the team about 10 years, he has not relented on that mandate and assured that ABS will continue to develop local players to stardom.


The ABS Director of Football, believed that the game is about exceptional talents, hence the reason they are going into agreement with La Planet Sport Academia which is responsible for the scouting of players across the nooks and crannies of the state.


He boasted that almost every Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), clubs have one ABS player(s), which he said informed La Planet Sport Academia's decision to do business with his club.


In his remarks, the President of La Planet Sport Academia, Mr Shogo Shodunnke, described the ABS Director of Football, as an honest person and his transparent way of running the club informed his decision to partner ABS.


He said as at his last count, no fewer than 48 players who had participated in his end of the season Pre-season tournament, AMAPRO had turned professional footballers.


Shodunnke said in the shortest period that AMAPRO began a few years ago, he has scouted over 200 players.


The La Planet Sport Academia President, described Kwara as his home, which he said will give his best to see that the world best football players come from there.


In their separate goodwill messages, Mr Jide Alabi, a banker, said it nice to see someone that is looking at football from the business angle of it.


He said it is high time that Nigeria see sports as an industry that it is especially football because it is capable of boosting the economy if the right things are done.


Also in his message, Engr Olaide Ahmed, the President of Excel All Stars, an amateur football club in Ilorin, appreciated Shodunke's love for football at the grassroots.


He commended the management of ABS Ilorin FC, for giving young players in the state opportunities to become professional players and earn a living through football.


Ahmed explained that ABS remain the only club in Kwara discovering and promoting players and appealed to the management of Kwara United to emulate the Saraki Boys.