Did you know over $60 million USD business transactions take place every year at the grassroots football level in Nigeria?...making it the most profitable sports market segment in the whole of Africa. Yet, the market is largely unscratched.
It is somehow a hidden treasure because at the surface it looks so rough and unattractive. And you may not see the worth because it is largely unorganized and scattered in pieces all over the country, without shape nor structure.
What is grassroots football?
Grassroots football are games organized and played in a given district or local community with the purpose of helping people stay fit and healthy as well as help develop individual's football talents.
It majorly play the role of bringing people together to foster relationships and drive values in a given local community.
Football is more seen from two levels, grassroots and top flight. The grassroots being the lower rank. But then there is the fair-bridge, the middle level games, clubs and leagues.
The fair-bridge football are not often talked about because it is difficult to define or describe. So it is either grassroots or top flight football.
How large is grassroots football?
As compared to top flight, grassroots football is extremely large. While we have little over 100 semi-pro and pro-clubs with a national outlook in Nigeria, estimated to be about 25,000 people including players, administrators and other staffs; grassroots has well over a million clubs (registered and unregistered) from different districts or local community. It include academies, boys clubs, schools team and some amateur clubs.
Grassroots football is estimated to be over 10 million people, players, coaches and organizers...
While top flight football are still struggling to find fans and active consumers (and could be estimated to be about 5 to 10 million consumers); grassroots has loyal fans (every football lover in each local community) , estimated to be about 50 million active consumers. This is why the grassroots football in Nigeria is huge and should be attractive for corporate and product brands.
Why is Grassroots Football Unattractive?
As I said in my previous article, targeting 10 million youth, age ranging from 10 – 35 years with no income, and coming mostly from the lower rank of families in Nigeria, may not be the ideal niche market any profit minded business person or organization would want to venture into.
Grassroots coaches and players put in a lot of work at this level but unfortunately, pass through a lot of difficult times trying to make ends meet or move to the next level in their career.
I personally think grassroots coaches suffer the most, even when their players eventually get transferred to bigger clubs, at the professional level, the agents disregard these grassroots coaches and they are not adequately compensated. That's not encouraging at all!
But the major reason is there are no structure put in place to reward all the work done at this level.
That's also the reason grassroots football has been left fallow for a long time, despite it’s large market size. It’s ten times larger than top flight football and four timers larger than all the sports put together in Nigeria. Yet, it hasn’t captured the interest of sports business people in the country.
The irony really is while Nigerian business men are looking away, foreigners and organizations are coming over to reap from this sports sector. I will just mention a few instances here.
But Here I will open your eyes to see how valuable the grassroots sector is, and the people, organizations and businesses already reaping from it.
1. Football Academy: while our local football academies ain't well organized, the Spanish FC Barcelona are here making a lot of money with FC Bescola academy in Lagos. Players pay upto N250, 000 to join, and spend upto a million Naira to travel to their Spanish tour.
2. Football Holiday Training Camp: Cowbell are also making a lot in their kiddies Holiday football training Camp. They engage more than 500 children and each child pay N35, 000 to participate in the one week camp at the former national stadium Surulere Lagos.
3. Grassroots Competitions: Organizers of Mock Nations Cup in Ajegunle make a lot of money from several associate sponsors.
4. Sportswear sales: Local sportswear brand, Haggai, with strategy to reach the grassroots, made a lot of money clothing over 34 teams (home and away jerseys) in the Surulere Regional league Lagos.
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5. Scouting Programs: for over five years Qatar-Aspire organized scouting programs in Lagos that paid off and lead to transfer of several players such as Wilfred Ndidi, Today, Fieldoo a Switzerland firm are billed to hold a scouting event this November.
6. Transfer of Players: Maybe, for lack of proper record, not many knows that grassroots transfer more players than the professional clubs in Nigeria. Players like Wilfred Ndidi, Henry Onyekuru, Victor Osimhen, Kelechi Iheanacho... all got transferred without playing in any professional club in Nigeria.
7. Sponsorship: Again, not many knows that corporate brands in Nigeria prefer to sponsor grassroots football than the Professional leagues: GTB Sponsor Principal Cup, 7up Sponsor Mock Nations Cup No professional league in Nigeria currently have a sponsor. Remember, Atieo sponsored Federations cup is for both grassroots and pro-clubs.
8. Rentage of Pitches & Other sporting facilities: Over a million grassroots clubs and academies rent pitches for training, for tournaments...Organization like the Digital Bridge Institute Oshodi & Legacy pitch at the former national stadium make a lot of money renting out pitches and other facilities to grassroots clubs and event organizers.
9. Media: Grassroots event organizers pay a lot to media houses to give publicity or to advertise their program events. They also engage video producer to shoot those events for different reasons.
I can tell you, grassroots football is huge! For me, this is the sports goldmine in Nigeria
