EAGLE EYE: Lamentations For Remo Stars Of Ikenne

This season turned out to be a disaster for Remo Stars FC of Ikenne in the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL), as the club owned by Honourable Kunle Soname got relegated just a year after they emerged champions for the first time in their short history.

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Winning the league title was a huge conquest that many football followers celebrated with aplomb, because the club from Ikenne had finished within the continental tickets bracket during the three previous seasons in a row.

Apart from seeing Soname’s squad maintain a rare shade of continuity that’s hard to find in this part of the world, Remo Stars also defied all odds in becoming the first private-owned club in over 30 years to win the Nigerian title, thereby bringing back memories of Iwuanyanwu Nationale of Owerri, Abiola Babes of Abeokuta, Udorji United of Awka and Jasper United of Onitsha.

Memory was also refreshed about the gallant strides of corporate-owned clubs like Leventis United of Ibadan, Eagle Cement of Port Harcourt, BCC Lions of Gboko, Bendel Insurance of Benin City, Mobil Pegassus of Eket and DIC Bees of Kaduna, all of which not only made top marks on the domestic front but also shook the African continent and West Coast.

We all hailed what appeared to be a near-perfect structure at Remo Stars – a team blessed with their own home turf, beaming with management built by someone with deep rooted experience from owning a club in Portugal and immense corporate partnerships across various fronts.

They had collaborations with sister companies – Bet9ja, ValueJet et al – such that money issues, adequate welfare, timely payment of dues, huge remuneration, camp facilities and proper means of transport appeared readily available for them.

Everyone celebrated the advent of Soname’s team as NPFL champions – because it looked like the time to finally dump the misnomer called government funding of football clubs had come. The Ikenne-based outfit was lavishly touted as the quintessential image of modern football that Nigeria needed and the verisimilitude of proper club operations that a real professional league side should show. We all thought Nigeria’s domestic league had truly come of age.

This team from the town that produced Obafemi Awolowo and Tai Solarin looked like the sure bet outfit to take off from where Mountain of Fire & Miracles Ministry (MFM) FC stopped after a spirited continental campaign that defied many odds. Remo Stars were tipped to go one step further than Dr Olukoya’s side did, mostly because Soname’s club appeared to be better organised and seemingly had a strong corporate backing, unlike the theological structure on which MFM FC was built.

Sadly, all those expectations fell flat, as Remo Stars bowed out of the continent in the most unsavoury manner ever suffered by a Nigerian club. Not only did they fail to reach the group stage, they even conceded five goals at home in one of their matches. On the other hand, ironically, it was government-owned Rivers United of Port Harcourt that went further than Remo Stars in the same CAF Champions League.

That alone provided a strong point in support of apologists for state-owned clubs, as they believe an individual cannot cope with the huge financial demands of playing in the domestic league, let alone a continental competition. Dramatically, the sordid continental campaign by Remo Stars would soon be dwarfed by their miserable outing in the NPFL, and they eventually got relegated last weekend. In the wake of that implosion, fingers of guilt and regret are already being pointed in various directions:

1. The club sold too many key players in last summer’s transfer window after they won the title, thereby cutting off the much-needed element of continuity for their continental campaign.

2. The club’s management embarked on an ill-timed renovation of their stadium in Ikenne, thereby ruling out the essence of familiar environment in their home matches.

3. The tactician who won the league title with them was distracted with the dual role of being an assistant coach in the national team, thereby causing distortions in their technical approach to matches.

4. The much vaunted corporate backing and co-financing that was expected from their sister companies did not materialise after all, as the umbrella management thought it wise not to overlap costs or share expenses across different accounts.

5. The much desired motivation of players through regular fat pay and juicy peps disappeared due to financial pressure on the club’s owner.

I tacitly warned Remo Stars about this likely doom when I generally highlighted some of these loose points in a recent article titled ‘Pros And Cons Of Private-owned Clubs,’ while also pointing out that the longevity of such outfits depends to a large extent on the status, finances, life, mood and thoughts of the owner.

However, these huge disadvantages of private-owned clubs are not peculiar to Nigeria … they also affect well-established teams in England that depend on the resources of a sole-financier. That’s why Chelsea have been struggling since the exit of Roman Abramovic.

A worse scenario has also befallen Leicester City, as the team that won the English Premier League at the high point of their owner’s financial boom has dropped to the third-tier league since his death in a helicopter crash, while Portsmouth continue ambling in the wilderness since their administrators slumped into bankruptcy.

The bottom line of this write-up, therefore, is that we must not overcelebrate the advent of private-owned clubs in Nigeria’s top-flight league. It’s good seeing four of them gain promotion at the same time, but the real deal is how they will keep those slots at the end of next season. Can they? Will they?

We should remember that Kun Khalifa of Owerri almost bowed out unceremoniously during this immediate past dispensation, until they received a lifeline from the NPFL. Sadly, NPFL’s magnanimity can’t go round for all clubs to enjoy in the league (and it must not be expected to). So, Remo Stars paid the price that Kun Khalifa escaped.

This, therefore, is a wake-up call to all owners of professional football clubs in Nigeria that it’s never a bed of roses out there in the NPFL. Ifeanyi Ubah found this truth out the hard way some years back. The same happened to Dakkada FC.

Interestingly, with all their financial might and long-standing presence, First Bank FC always refuse to step up beyond the lower division. Rather than seek promotion to the top-flight league, The Elephant Boys comfort themselves with competing in the less expensive Nigerian National League (NNL).

The silent anecdote from them to all other clubs is: Why not stick to the lower division, rather than aspire for the NPFL and continental spots, then end up becoming lonely at the top?