Meet Jairo Pachon:The Colombian Who Organize All the International Friendly Matches for Nigeria

Eurodata Sport: The Official Match and Player's Agency for NFF
 Jairo Pachon, FIFA licensed match and players’ agent and one of the brains behind Eurodata Marketing Sportivo E Culturale (simply known as Eurodata Sport) the agency working exclusively with Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and saddle with the responsibility of promoting Super Eagles and other Nigeria national teams.. organizing International Friendly matches, travel logistics and training camps for NFF.

Jairo is eminently qualified to speak about Nigerian football for obvious reasons. He is the arrow head of Eurodata Sports who are the official match agency to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) since 2011,
Jairo is the son of Efrain Pachon, former Vice-President of the Colombian Football Federation under whose tenure the country’s football attained its golden period of the 1990s.

Efrain Pachon, who is the current chairman of Eurodata Sports, was also the former President of Santa Fe of Colombia between 1985 and 1990 as well as President of Cucuta Deportivo between 1995 and 2004. He also presided over Colombian Football team to the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.

Read what Jairo has to say about his job with NFF:

1. FIRST, TELL US HOW YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH NFF STARTED:?

I started with the Nigerian Football Federation in 2008. I was working with the Colombian Football Association as a match agent and that was when I met the NFF officials. From there I was involved in organising the friendly against Ireland and then I did another game in Korea.

Then in 2010, I did Colombia against Nigeria in London with another agent. But that agent defaulted and the NFF contacted me and asked me to fix the problem with the Colombian federation.

Between 2010 and 2011, the federation asked me to come in and I said the only way that would work is if I came in as an exclusive agent.

I said they needed to be able to work professionally like all the other big federations, with one exclusive match agent, and I would go ahead and represent them and find games.

However, I said if I don't deliver in the first 6 months, if I don't bring in enough games, they can penalize me, or terminate the contract.

Since then, after the Argentina match in Abuja, we have not stopped playing match, both inside and outside the Fifa window.

I remember particularly when Stephen Keshi came in, they needed to find him games to assess the home players, and I remember we got Botswana, we got Zambia.

Then later we played Angola and Egypt. I think Keshi had like 4-5 games on non FIFA days to prepare the home boys.

And in 2012, we played maybe over 10 games. And I think that helped a lot the development of the home Eagles.

All this showed when Nigeria won the African Nations Cup.

When Gernot Rohr came in and qualified for the World Cup, we got Argentina... and Nigeria win in that game gave Nigeria fans a lot of hope going to the World cup in Russia. Then we got Poland, Chech Republic, and England...and Nigeria outing in Russia was quite decent.

There is nothing more difficult for a coach than to have only 2 or 3 opportunities to get the players together. National team will always use friendly games to build up their team.

2. WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES, IS IT THAT DIFFICULT TO FIND MATCHES FOR NIGERIA?

It depends on the situation.
But it's always difficult because the federations and the promoters who work with the federations, they look at the possibility of having a full house, at the possibility of selling TV rights, at the possibility of selling advertisements within the pitch perimeter.

And in that sense, it is something that we have to work very hard with Nigeria. And I will tell you why. In 2009, we brought Nigeria to London to play against Ireland and less than four thousand Nigerians came to the stadium.

We came back to play Italy. It has been a long process. But we are champions of Africa in 2013 and we have qualified for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil,  it becomes interesting. They had three African countries to decide on. They had Ghana, they had Ivory Coast and Nigeria.

But during the Confederations Cup I had to be lobbying, lobbying them. I spoke to the agent, I pushed I pushed.

They said they were looking more at Ghana because Ghana is a hugely supported team. They told me that when Ghana played, there were thirty thousand Ghanaians in the stadium. And when we played Ireland, there was just a few thousan)d. But I told them that when we played that game, there was no good relationship between the fans and the team and that things have changed.

Things are a lot better now, Nigerians are becoming more supportive to their national team.

3. SO IN EFFECT, YOU'RE SAYING THAT FANS DETERMINE WHETHER NIGERIA GETS BIG COUNTRIES OR NOT?

There is a lot of cost involved in organising friendly mat*ches, the hotel, the stadium, the local transportation, the police.

So if after all that, you don't have people in the stadium, why would you be going to lose money?

Now, look at this match. Italy are not playing in Italy because they play Germany at home a few days before. So two matches so close may not bring too much interest. So they want to come go outside Italy, which means they needed to have the agents and promoters committed and their money paid to them.

It's a big commitment. I think there's only two sports federations who don't have problems like that and they don't need to go out and play. England because they have great value for TV worldwide and they have Sky and the stadium is always full.

So yes, the fans are always important. Because one of the main things about the game is the atmosphere, they motivate the players and they help to sell the match.

What is also important is to have a star player. For example, Egypt have Mo Salah. That is another key issue with Nigeria. We don't have one key star player. I think we have a fantastic team, and I am not trying to say that in a bad way, I am just talking from a promoter's side, from a business side.

If Egypt go somewhere, they have Salah as a star attraction. If Argentina go somewhere, they have Messi, Brazil have Neymar, Portugal have Ronaldo. But we don't have it yet.

We used to have Kanu, we used to have ' Okocha. Those are the kind of players that make it easier for a promoter to sell a team because people want to see them.

John Obi Mikel is a good player but he didn't get to that icon level., not Victor Moses nor Ahmed Musa

But I think we are going to have it soon, especially looking at the upcoming lads Alex Iwobi is a very good player. Also Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi.


4. HOW BIG IS THE SUPER EAGLES BRAND IN THE WORLD OF FOOTBALL?

Super Eagles is an appreciable team. In 1994, Nigeria got their highest Fifa ranking 4th in world and that surprised the football community. A team from Africa making waves, that created a lot of brand awareness. Of course, the dominance of Golden Eaglets at the U16 level has also brought Nigeria to the fore.

Nigeria isn't that a big team like Brazil, Argentina, Germany or Spain. But for now,  Nigeria  is playing a lot of games and doing well, I think it's been great, with more consistent results Nigeria can take up the brand position of the Dark Horse, just as Belgium and Croatia lately.

The relationship with Super Eagles and the fans has been a lot better. Gernot Rohr is managing the team so well and we hope they perform in the coming Africa Cup of Nation in Egypt. That's good for business.

Once Nigeria become a big team, get big stars, get into the top 10 or top 5 of the FIFA rankings then you get better commercial opportunities. That's it.

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5. DOES THE FACT THAT OTHER COUNTRIES AND OTHER AGENTS KNOW YOU HELP IN SECURING THESE GAMES?

Yes it helps. Once people know you, and they can trust you and know you can deliver and keep your word.

You know Nigeria had a problem a few years ago after a game that was cancelled. The contract had been signed and the team was supposed to be there, and it created problems and people did not want to do business with Nigeria, because they say Nigeria will not come.

But these people know me and how I do business. It was not easy, but we worked hard to convince them. Like Italy,  I organized Italy and Ivory Coast in London so they know me.


6. WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH NIGERIA?

I love Nigeria. Getting to know the people, and the friendships I have made. That is very important for me. Getting to know the football in Nigeria. Getting to know the grassroots. I love seeing the grassroots when I travel in Nigeria.

I always say South Americans and Africans we are the same. The only difference is the colour.
We have very similar football cultures and very similar ways to approach life.

7. WHAT ARE WE EXPECTING FROM YOU AND YOUR AGENCY IN 2019?

Nigeria is gradually coming to reckoning again Super Falcons has again qualified for Fifa women's World Cup in France and NFF has shown willingness to prepare them so the team can put up a good showing in France.

We got them Four nations tournament in China where the Super Falcons came third after loosing to China and beating Romania in the third place match. Super Falcons will also participate in the eight nations tournament in Cyprus this coming April.

Super Eagles will smalstart preparationWe are also looking at engaging the U20 team, the Flying Eagles in some international Friendly too