In just over a year, Sporting Lagos announced their coming from the NNL to the NPFL by upsetting the champions and creating rivalry in the southwest. But how will the club fare as they begin life in the top flight? ABIODUN ADEWALE reports
The astonishing rise of a new football club, Sporting Lagos, has sparked a new impression of structure, followership, branding and even rivalry in the Nigerian domestic football scene. So much that it makes a lot of people wonder if Nigerian club football has attracted such attention recently.
In two weeks, the club gained promotion to the Nigeria Professional Football League from the second division and also won the maiden Naija Super 8 tournament in front of a packed Mobolaji Johnson Arena, in what would be referred to as passing the litmus test of what is to come in the topflight.
On the surface, it might be hard for Sporting Lagos to appeal to people who have followed Nigerian club football for at least 30 years or more. But in an era when basic things like sense of community ownership, fans-players connection, rivalry and many other things which made club football tick in those days are fading away, it must be refreshing to see a private club or club(s) bringing back the memories.
Founded just over a year ago by a tech guru, Shola Akinlade, the club came into the fray of Nigerian club football with an intent for community development and social change.
Aside from being a software engineer, Akinlade prides himself as someone who builds platforms for a living and in a six minutes and 58 seconds video which was used to announce the birth of the club on February 3, 2022, the young entrepreneur passionately explained how the memories of the USA 1994 World Cup and the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games inspired him to explore opportunities in football, not as a player, but as an owner.
“In every profession, I’ve seen people who just love this sport and just looking for ways to contribute and I’m just like it might be a good idea to create something and bring everyone together. What if we created a football club that all of us can own and support?
“The power of having this club in Lagos is just to unify and inspire our people and also create opportunities in the city for the people. The footballers and everyone in the ecosystem,” he said.
Akinlade is the co-founder and CEO of Paystack, the company that was acquired by Stripe in 2020 for $200m. In just a year, he has proven that he didn’t create the club just because he has the money to throw around, rather, he has also expanded his investment by acquiring a 55% stake in Danish second division club Aarhus Fremad in 2023.
The days of little beginning
What has now become a refined brand of football started at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, the first adopted ground of the club in the Nigeria National League. Apparently, the state of the pitch didn’t do justice to the quality of branding that the club brought into it and the capacity of the stadium itself sank the handful number of fans who barely filled one segment of the stands.
The club surely had a tough start to life in terms of results but a culture had begun among their tiny followers. Luckily for them, their darling team also escaped relegation into the Nationwide League One (NLO One) by just goal difference after their first campaign in the second tier.
As tough as things were, the few fans who made it to the games in Surulere were unusually treated to premium entertainment as musical artistes including Teni and Laycon have performed on the ground during their matches.
Of course, it didn’t come cheap.
“Sincerely, I never thought in my lifetime that a Nigerian football fan would pay as much as N50,000 to watch a league game, the NNL for that matter. Wow! You’ve to be at Sporting Lagos home games to understand what I’m talking about. It all starts with a walk through the beautiful pavilion walkway into the belly of a stadium filled with happy faces who are sometimes not there for only football but the entertainment provided by top acts in the music industry in Nigeria,” Sporting Lagos chairman, Godwin Enakhena told The PUNCH.
Enakhena, Offor the thinkermen
Veteran sports journalist, Godwin Enakhena, is not new to football administration in Nigeria having administered one of Nigeria’s finest private-owned clubs in recent times, MFM FC.
Interestingly, Enakhena has now oversaw the promotion of two different teams from the second division to the NPFL – MFM in 2014 and Sporting Lagos in 2023. With about a decade of service already put into administration, Enakhena’s credentials are good enough to earn him the position of chairman at the new club.
For someone who ran a club in the heart of Lagos and enjoyed a success as huge as bringing continental football and not just the NPFL back to the city, he is a round peg in a round hole as the new club tries to capture the hearts of more Lagosians after the relegation of MFM.
While Enakhena holds a popular place among sports fans, the coach of the team Paul Offor will need a background check to be sure if he could carry the weight of the brand.
With his unassuming look, the former Warri Wolves assistant coach is another reflection and testament of the club’s huge investment in personnel. Offor was appointed before the start of the last NNL season in March, joining from Cotonou-based Premier League club, Djeffa FC.
After four months in charge, Offor successfully led the team to promotion to the NPFL before winning the off-season Naija Super 8 tournament, which they entered as a wildcard.
“It feels good that you set objectives at the beginning of the season and you achieve them. And the most important thing is the structure of the club. Sporting Lagos is very intentional about growth,” Offor told our correspondent.
He added not just him, but even his assistants have been to different refreshers and upgrade coaching courses since joining the club even as the players are adequately taken care of.
Captain of the team, Vincent Akpipi affirms the point of view of the coach.
“To be a Sporting player for someone like me is like playing for one of the best teams in the world because that’s what we are, honestly. We all are doing everything with 100 per cent commitment due to how the club takes care of us as well. They don’t owe us and you can’t even take a salary advance,” Akpipi said.
“Being Sporting Lagos player is not just about playing for the team. There is also a psychologist who talks to us about our lives, especially when we are going through anything. They do a lot for us even as it concerns planning for life after football,” he added.
Happy players, happy fans in ‘Happy Corner’
In the space of two years, Sporting Lagos fans have built a community which they call ‘Happy Corner’ on every match-day. The convener, Bamiji Ojo shared the inspiration of the movement with our correspondent.
“Shola was different, what he was proposing with Sporting Lagos was different so we went to the first game, got our VIP tickets and what an amazing experience we had,” Ojo said.
“They took note of us on the first day because we were being rhythmic with our vuvuzelas and there it was, I saw an avenue to bring in people who I already knew just needed good football, entertainment and connection with like-minded people to come out and support a Lagos born club.
“From the rhythmic sounds of the vuvuzelas to singing choruses of the players name (which the players have come to notice), win lose or draw, the happy corner will be there behind the players cause the genuine love and energy these people have for the EPL and its players is now being transferred to people they can access face to face.”
Among these fans, there is one who is called the noisemaker of Sporting due to his energetic display on match-days. But beyond blowing vuvuzela every match-day, Olasunkanmi Oladejo sees the reason to own part of the club.
“I saw the story of the formulation of the club last February on X (formerly twitter). Shola Akinlade is someone I follow keenly so I was quite interested in what he wanted to do with a football club,” a fan of the club, Olasunkanmi Oladejo told The PUNCH.
“I always purchase the VIP ticket for N2,500 and I am definitely buying the season ticket for the new season.
Different ball game
The Naija Super 8 was a litmus test for Sporing Lagos and they ticked all the boxes of the experiment. They even started to prepare for life in the topflight by landing a major addition to their squad in former league top scorer, Junior Lokosa.
At the tournament, their team beat some of the biggest teams in the NPFL including champions Enyimba, Akwa United and Remo Stars twice – in the group stage and in the final. In the process, they had heroes in their players including Saturday Okon; whose goals propelled them from the NNL to the NPFL as well as the heroics of goalkeeper Christian Nwoke who saved two penalties in the final against Remo Stars.
Nwoke also saved a crucial penalty against Stormers FC during the NNL playoffs in Asaba to ensure his team sealed their NPFL ticket with a 2-0 win over the Abeokuta side.
If the NNL was different and the Naija Super 8 was also just an off-season tournament, the club and their fans will cherish the success even as they continue to prepare for life in the topflight.
Club chairman Enakhena told our correspondent about the hunger to play in the league, even before they gained their promotion, “Of course, this is key and a platform that will allow the owner and his team to unleash the goodies they’ve planned to change our league narrative. All hands are on deck towards achieving this mission after what could best be described as a very tough season in the NNL, Shola calls it ‘learning the hard way which to some is the only way’.”
Despite being the mastermind of their recent success, coach Offer was modest about their new adventure in the NPFL.
“It was a privilege to play against big teams like Enyimba, Akwa United, Remo Stars and Katsina United and it will be nice to continue to play among them,” he said.
“Now that we are in the NPFL, I know it will be tough but we can always achieve our goals as a team. We know what the fans are expecting and we are getting prepared to get the job done. In fact, we already have a rival in Remo Stars, and people will be expecting to repeat what we did in the Naija Super 8. So, the challenge is on us and we will be ready to compete and aim for our goals,” Captain Akpipi said.
As the players and officials get ready for their first NPFL game against Gombe United at home in Lagos on Monday, October 2 (today), their fans are looking forward to more premium entertainment.
“Sporting Lagos has redefined the match-day experience in Lagos and I expect more from them. They have been able to marry entertainment and football effectively so Lagosians will have a different taste of football which in turn will lead to an increase in followership, a positive economic outlook for the state and also the availability of top-tier local football in one of the biggest cities in Africa,” a fan Biodun Ajibade said.
