A historic innovation will be enacted at the start of next week in Ikenne, Ogun State, as four private-owned football clubs will commence battles for the emergence of this season’s champions in Nigeria’s second-tier league.
It promises to be thrills galore, as two sides from The Centre of Excellence lock horns with a couple from the North of Nigeria, and I say. “All hail the invasion of private-owned clubs.”
Read Also: Ebenezer Akinsanmiro Set To Play In Italy’s Second Division, Following Relegation With Pisa | Sports247 Nigeria
Indeed, this year’s Super-4 competition of the Nigerian National League (NNL) is coming up at Remo Stars Stadium with two major historic firsts that already whet the appetite of a true lover of the round leather game, who is passionate about the growth of club football in Nigeria.
It’s the first time four private-owned clubs will contest alone for the NNL’s top gong and it’s equally the first time two teams from Lagos will tussle together among the quartet of promoted outfits from the lower echelon of the Nigerian league. Those two innovations have already set the stage for a historic season next time out in the top-flight Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL).
The new trend from the impending NNL Super-4 already imports that the NPFL’s 2026/2027 season will have eight private-owned clubs for the first time in a single campaign (or seven, if Kun Khalifat drop out) – and three of them are from Lagos!
That’s so because Ikorodu City FC are already placed in a great vantage position to welcome Inter Lagos FC and Sporting Lagos FC to the top-flight. Remo Stars of Ikenne and Barau FC of Kano will also be there to contest with them all alongside Doma United of Gombe and Ranchers Bees of Kaduna.
The presence of this set of private-owned clubs brings back memories of the days when we enjoyed the flair of Abiola Babes of Abeokuta, Leventus United of Ibadan, Iwuayanwu Nationale of Owerri, Jasper United of Awka, Udoji United of Onitsha, Exide FC of Ibadan, Femo Scorpions of Eruwa, Alyufsalam Rocks of Ilorin, Zabgai of Bauchi, Highlanders of Kaduna, VIP Professionals of Lagos, Stationery Stores of Lagos and Flash Flamingoes of Benin City.
Those were glorious days of Nigeria’s domestic football scene, when clubs owned by individuals (not state governments, or even companies) held sway in the top-flight league. Those were the days when privatisation was a passion, not a policy (as one of Nigeria’s former presidents, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, tried to institute during his second term in office).
OBJ averred that private ownership of key portions of a country’s economy is the key to financial resurgence, stability and sustainability in the nation. So, he started selling off several public enterprises (but forget that private ownership without passion in it is a minus).
Sadly, even the celebrated privatisation of public corporations and its highly proclaimed sibling – public-private partnership – did not change the tide in the highest level of Nigeria’s football league, as clubs owned by states continued calling the shots (mostly due to the reality of huge government funding available to them).
However, kudos should at this point go to each subsequent governor from Lagos State – Bola Tinubu, Raji Fashola, Akinwunmi Ambode and Babajide Sanwo-Olu – for refusing to join the bandwagon of state-owned football clubs. Their refusal to join the maddening crowd has brought upon us the incidence of private-owned clubs looking good to retake the tentacles of Nigeria’s domestic football scene (as it used to be).
The example in Lagos State has led to the emergence of several private-owned outfits and the advancement of many others that used to be referred to as mere youth clubs or grassroots teams.
That led to the ascent of teams like Okaka United, Real Sapphire, Mavlon, Box-2-Box, Dannaz, FC Robo, 36 Lion, Smart City and many others like them. They have successfully taken over the mantle of dominion in Lagos football from corporate-owned outfits and rendered most of them defunct (a la Union Bank FC, NEPA, Julius Berger, NITEL United, etc).
Small wonder then that Lagos State will have three private-owned clubs competing effectively next season in the top-flight NPFL. That reality portrays nine key benefits for Nigerian football in the jet age –
1. Expansion of club ownership across multiple locations,
2. Economic buoyancy and vibrancy in the football sector,
3. Organisational efficiency in club structure and management,
4. Increased opportunities of employment for players, coaches and officials,
5. Multiplication of avenues for talent hunt and transfers to foreign clubs,
6. Self-sustaining football ecosystem without government expenditure,
7. Better welfare and remuneration for players across the structure,
8. Commercialised values – competitive betting, advertising dividends, qualitative merchandising and modernised branding,
9. Closer affinities with the media across both individual and corporate levels.
These are what I call the ‘pros’ of overwhelming private ownership of football clubs in Nigeria. The new trend also brings up an augury of days to come when the current status of dependence on government funding seen in administration of Nigeria’s football would become a thing of the past; with the NFF becoming independent and self-sustaining to a very large extent (as private club owners are likely to aspire for the exalted position of federation president).
However, there are a number of drawbacks that tend to crop up as clogs in the wheel of progress and factors that could sour the sweet taste of private ownership of many Nigeran football clubs. These I refer to as ‘the cons’ that confront, contrast and contradict the earlier outlined positive appendages of privatisation in Nigeria’s club football sector:
1. Lack of financial might to pursue continental competitions (like Remo Stars earlier this year),
2. Low salaries for players and delayed payment of entitlements,
3. Substandard facilities in camping, transportation, kit and jersies,
4. Centralised management structure and organisation based on the owner’s limitations,
5. Rapid turnover of key players due to large-scale exports in the pursuit of foreign exchange,
6. Possibility of short lifespan due to change in owner’s financial power or death.
All the above six points are key factors that stand in the way of real domination that private ownership of clubs could have in Nigeria. However, if the current rapid rise of the private clubs trend that is being seen in Lagos can be sustained and expanded on a national scale, Nigeria could jolly well begin to enjoy the values of all NPFL teams owned by moneybags, as seen in the English Premier League.
