Lobi Stars opened the 2026/27 Nigeria National League season on Sunday 8 November 2026 with a 1-0 home win over Bichi First FC at McCarthy Stadium in Makurdi, Dominic Foga scoring in the first half. It is the club's second season in the second tier after it finished bottom of the Nigeria Premier Football League in 2024/25, and the first with Bala Nikyu as head coach.
| Club | Lobi Stars, based in Makurdi, Benue State; Sportmonks lists 1981 as the founding year |
| League in 2026/27 | Nigeria National League, second tier |
| Head coach | Bala Nikyu, unveiled at the end of June 2026 |
| Home ground | McCarthy Stadium, Wadata, Makurdi (listed capacity 5,000) |
| Official home | Aper Aku Stadium, 15,000 on Sportmonks, still unfinished |
| Last season | 2nd in Conference C, 23 points from 14 games; only the winner went up |
| Player salaries | No individual figure is public; the ₦2 million minimum covers the NPFL only |
| Next match | Away at Kada Warriors in Kaduna |
Second place was not enough
Lobi Stars finished 2025/26 on 23 points from 14 Conference C games, seven wins, two draws and five defeats. Doma United took the single promotion place with 26 points, three clear of Lobi Stars. Another year in the second tier, then, and Aper Aku still unfinished.
Doma United also scored 18 goals to the 12 of Lobi Stars, and in a group where only those two sides won more than six games, Mighty Jets and City FC went down on 16 points each.
The dugout has seen several changes. Abubakar Bala was named technical adviser in August 2025. John Onuh was in charge by the end of the first round.
Nikyu came at the end of June.
He holds a CAF A licence and was an assistant coach with the Super Falcons. His clubs include Katsina United, Nasarawa United, Gombe United and Doma United. Chairman Simon Terver Ikya wants promotion and has ruled out mass recruitment. Foga was also the player fouled for a penalty that won a Conference C match earlier this year.
Three points from 19 away games
Lobi Stars won no away game in their last Premier Football League season. They finished 20th of 20. We recalculated 2024/25 from the Sportmonks fixture list. The feed carries no Nigeria National League games for the club, so the current season cannot be split this way yet.
| 2024/25 NPFL | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Points | Per match |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 19 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 21 | 22 | 25 | 1.32 |
| Away | 19 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 8 | 34 | 3 | 0.16 |
| Total | 38 | 6 | 10 | 22 | 29 | 56 | 28 | 0.74 |
Nearly nine points in ten came at home, 25 of 28. Those home games were not in Makurdi. The fixtures list Lafia nine times, Bauchi four and Enugu six.
Away, Lobi Stars lost 16 of 19, conceding 34 and scoring 8. Ossy Martins was the club's top scorer with eight league goals, according to Sportmonks data.
What the players earn
No Lobi Stars player's wage has been published, and we will not guess one.
The only figure on record applies to the top flight. The National Sports Commission and the Nigeria Football Federation approved a minimum of ₦2 million a month for NPFL players on 23 June 2026. The commission chairman, Shehu Dikko, said that “players must earn a living wage”. At roughly ₦1,350 to the dollar, the Central Bank of Nigeria band reported for 12 November 2026, that is about $1,480 a month, but the announcement names only the top flight, so Lobi Stars, as a National League club, have no published floor of any kind to point to.
The arrears question is older. When Voice of Nigeria reported the appointment of Bala in August 2025, it said the new board had inherited a two-month salary backlog from the previous administration, while the chairman of the time, Philip Nongu, who is also the state's acting commissioner for youth and sports, denied rumours of unpaid wages. Nothing since has put a sum on either claim. Bigger pay packets are in our guide to the highest-paid players in the Nigerian league.
McCarthy Stadium and an unfinished Aper Aku
The Nigeria National League gave McCarthy Stadium provisional approval in February 2026. That followed four years of nomadic life, taking Lobi Stars to Jos, Lafia, Bauchi and Enugu. The listed capacity is 5,000. Doma United were due to be the first visitors, on 21 February.
The approval is provisional.
Hence Aper Aku. It is not ready. A Daily Trust column of 17 October 2026 called the renovation a hollow shell. It said about ₦1.33 billion of a ₦1.75 billion contract had been released, the dressing rooms and the repainted bowl were done, and the pitch, floodlights and scoreboards were not. It is an opinion piece, and the contractor says he will install the rest only after full payment. On that evidence McCarthy stays the working home for now. Every top-flight ground is in our guide to NPFL clubs and stadiums.
Kaduna next
Kada Warriors are next, away. Fourth in Conference C last season, they finished on 20 points. Lobi Stars scored 12 goals in 14 games, and we cannot yet say whether the away problem from 2024/25 has carried over. See also how Nasarawa United, Nikyu's former club, sit in the top flight.
This article was most recently revised and updated 18 seconds ago
