This week, Nigeria's league organising body signed a landmark partnership agreement with their La Liga counterparts from Spain.
Beyond the optics, this is a hugely significant step by the League Management Company and underlines the strategic thinking behind their decisions and actions since starting five years ago.
Up until then, the Nigerian league had been a complete mess. Violence, manipulated results, horrible pitches and poor games, among other things, had seen fans desert stadia across the country.
The first order of business for the LMC, led by former lawmaker Nduka Irabor at the time, was to totally clean house. That meant not only setting out clear rules for clubs and fans to play by, but ensuring they were enforced to the letter, clearly and transparently. It was something that had been lacking in the past.
Internal processes at league and club level were overhauled, leading to a more professional approach to running the organisations, with the long term goal to encourage more private investment in the ownership and control of league clubs.
While that is still some way off, with only four of the 20 Premier League clubs privately owned, it is a significant upgrade from the zero that was the case at the beginning of the LMC's efforts.
There have been impressive, if gradual results. Attendances are up, more families are going to games, television broadcast is up to sometimes three live games a week and more importantly, results have become as unpredictable as they should be.
With businessman Shehu Dikko taking over from Irabor, progress has continued. The partnership with the Spanish La Liga was the next, strategic step.
"We need to think about the future of our league, how we can make it not only the best in Africa, but one that is self-sustaining and gives our players the best opportunity to develop their talent and play on the biggest stage in the world," Dikko told ESPN FC.
"We looked at the structure of La Liga and felt there was a lot we could learn from how they had built their league and sustained it with such consistency. They have the best clubs in the world, who regularly dominate European competition.
"So when we met at the World Leagues Forum, we approached them for a partnership."
Fernando Sanz, the former Real Madrid and Malaga defender, was a member of the Spanish league delegation in Nigeria. He says the major elements of the partnership will be on the back end.
"This is more about the development of football," he said. "There will be technical exchanges; training of administrators and coaches and helping with corporate governance structures of the clubs.
"It will include marketing, branding, match day security, stewards, communication, academies, fan engagement and the entire matchday experience."
To underline that commitment, La Liga will set up a liaison office within the offices of the Nigerian Professional Football League.
La Liga president Javier Tebas said it will be a two-way partnership.
"We are coming to share experiences," he said. "We are sure we can learn from Nigerian league. These experiences will help both of us to grow. For us, we will invest in the Nigerian league and we affirm not only to the league but also to the Nigerian government, our determination to help football in Nigeria to grow."
It is a win-win for both sides. The Nigerian league would not need to re-invent the wheel, but would get world class technical and administrative support from one of the world's best leagues.
In turn, this would lead to greater cooperation and even more partnerships between individual Nigerian clubs and their La Liga counterparts.
A short and medium term result would be that Nigerian league players could get quicker exposure to La Liga clubs, which could mean more opportunities for talented players to make better moves to Spain.
For La Liga, they get a foothold into one of the world's biggest emerging markets.