Newly promoted Nigeria Professional Football League club, Sporting Lagos, is heading in the right direction with capable hands running its day to day affairs.
It's worth knowing that the Lagos based team is one of the few privately owned clubs in the Nigerian domestic top-flight.
In an interview granted by the chairman of Sporting Lagos, Godwin Enakhena, to The ICIR, some revelations were made by the administrator.
“We are building our stadium inside Landmark in Victoria Island,” he said.
He continued, “it is 85 percent complete, so it means we will not have to beg anybody for a stadium.”
The club was founded in 2022 and as a new side, they've been sharing the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Onikan with some other Lagos clubs like Ikorodu United FC, Julius Berger and Firstbank FC.
But in a bid to create a niche for Sporting Lagos, tech millionaire owner Shola Akinlade, began building a home turf for the club which as revealed by the chairman is now 85 percent complete.
Mr. Enakhena exempted Sporting Lagos' promotion to the NPFL as mere luck, pointing out that the operations of the club are different from previous clubs who have gained promotion into the top-flight league in Lagos.
He made it clear that the club was established for youth repositioning coupled with a corporate business design, saying the club prioritized the value it offers to football fans.
“The previous clubs in Lagos were not set for business. Mountain of Fire Ministries (MFM) FC was not set up for business,”
“Julius Berger was just CSR; things like that do not last, but this is a business model from the get-go,”
“Football is big business, and it is about competition. You must give something to the fans,”
“Nigerians want to watch football. You have to give them a reason to come to the stadium, a value for money and their time,” he said.
Sporting Lagos have been growing in leaps and bounds following its success from the Nigeria National League (NNL), and going on to win the Naija Super 8 pre-season tournament where they defeated more experienced clubs in the NPFL.
With the commencement of the 2023/24 league season now set for the weekend of 9th September, Paul Offor and his side will continue preparations ahead of their maiden campaign in the domestic top division.
This article was most recently revised and updated 1 year ago
