Sports

Nigeria Premier League Yearns For Past Glory

Published

15 years ago

July 2, 2011

On Sunday June 12, two of Nigeria’s biggest clubs in the last four decades, Shooting Stars a.k.a 3SC and Rangers International, contested a league game in Abeokuta.

Forty years ago, after the country’s Civil War, it would have been the match everyone talked about. The media would have been awash with the fact that the two clubs that represented different philosophies and regions in the country were about to rekindle their rivalry having won 11 championships between them.

However, during this recent face-off, the players traded tackles in front of a near empty stadium. Apart from those who watched on television because there was no competing programming from Europe on that fateful day, there was little interest. The game, like many things in local Nigerian football, has lost its sheen.

In the past decade, the Nigerian league has suffered a demise of colours. Fans have kept away from the stadiums and a coterie of them can now be found on Saturday evenings watching European league football in television viewing centres.

In Lagos, the commercial capital, over a thousand shops screen the English Premier League. A report by TELL magazine in 2008 estimated that more than 500 outlets sell jerseys of major European clubs while viewing centre entrepreneurs make at least $200,000 monthly from screening live games.

In all this, the Nigerian league has gone to sleep. Lagos has no representation in the Premier League, as it’s most supported side, – the Stationery Stores, have been battling with ownership issues for the better part of two decades. And without the impact of Lagos, the support base of the league has nosedived.

Adebayo Olowo-Ake, a Stores supporter who is leading a revival of the side, told Goal.com “SSFC supporters would charter all the buses in Lagos in those days and head for these Nigerian cities a day before the game, and residents would know that ‘The Lagos people had arrived.’ SSFC took on the might of governments, for these other clubs were government-owned, unlike Stores, that was wholly private and even better supported than them.”

In the past, all the major clubs were owned by business people and as such ran as profit-making ventures. Today, they have all been taken over by state governments and are run as political tools. This has brought about a lack of checks and balances and a lackadaisical attitude towards the sport. “They’ve taken the soul out of football and that’s why fans do not come out anymore,” Oluwashina Okeleji of BBC Sport told Goal.com.

It was a sentiment echoed by former Nigeria international Segun Odegbami in his column last week. “In Nigerian football everything is about government. Until the economic and political situation changes, proper professional football, the sort that will bring up a private organisation as defined by the FIFA statutes, cannot exist in most of Africa.” he wrote on the SuperSport website.

Also, spurious refereeing decisions that ensure home teams have the upper hand with the award of scandalous penalties are a bane of the league. A penalty is gifted to home sides in virtually one out of every two games played in the season and this makes sure that fans keep away from the stadiums. Many say there’s no joy knowing that your club will always win their home clashes, even when they play badly.

Poor pitches also reduce the beauty of the game. Many of the stadiums, except a few that were repaired during the country’s hosting of the FIFA U17 tournament two years ago, do not have playable surfaces.

Pundits have called for retiring Nigerian stars abroad to return home to play for a few years in order to ignite fans’ desire and passion for the league. The country’s highest scoring player, Rashidi Yekini, did that a few years ago when he featured for Julius Berger. The stands were packed again, even if it was short-lived. Imagine Kanu or Okocha in the jersey of Enyimba or Kano Pillars – the fans would go crazy. No other stars followed Yekini’s footsteps because pay conditions are poor. Signing-on fees are rarely delivered and local players chase after the Golden Fleece in Europe.

The Nigerian Premier League board has a great deal to do to rediscover local interest in the top flight. First, the league must be given back to private hands and clear its stables of corruption. Then try to bring Lagos back into the picture; it is, after all, where the bulk of the fans exist.

Sports

Arsenal must win trophies to leave legacy – Arteta

Published

5 days ago

January 12, 2026

The Tide

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has said that the Premier League leaders must win trophies if they were to be remembered like the “Invincibles” side that last won the title for the Gunners in 2004.

Arsene Wenger’s side romped to the title 22 years ago without losing a single league game.

Arsenal headede into last night’s clash at home to reigning champions Liverpool with a five-point lead at the top of the table after Manchester City and Aston Villa dropped points against Brighton and Hove Albion and Crystal Palace, respectively on Wednesday.

Arteta’s men, runners-up for the past three seasons, have two more points and four more goals than Wenger’s ‘Invincibles’ managed after 20 games.

But the Spaniard said those stats matter little unless Arsenal go on to win the league.

“No, because ‘the Invincibles’ won a lot,” Arteta told his pre-match press conference on whether his side can be considered better than Arsenal’s last title winners.

“They won consistently, and they created a history and a legacy, and we have to do that.”

The lone major piece of silverware won by Arsenal in six years under Arteta remains the 2020 FA Cup

“There are a lot of stats, but in the last two or three years we have managed more points and more goals than ever before. But at the end, we have to translate that to major trophies,” he added.

“Probably doing what we are doing now would have been enough (in 2004), but now it’s not, and we have to make the margins even bigger.”

Arsenal lost 1-0 to Liverpool at Anfield back in August in what was billed as an early showdown between title rivals.

The defending champions headed to the Emirates 14 points off the top after a difficult second season for Arne Slot, but Arteta insisted the Reds remain a superb side.

The Gunners were without sidelined defenders Riccardo Calafiori and Cristhian Mosquera but were“monitoring the load” on Kai Havertz as the Germany forward intensified his training while continuing to recover from a long-term leg injury.

Sports

AFCON: Osimhen, Lookman Threaten Algeria’s Record

Published

5 days ago

January 12, 2026

The Tide

Nigeria sharpshooters Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman will provide a stern test to the flawless record of Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane, a son of French football icon Zinedine Zidane, in the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals in Morocco.

Zidane is the only first-choice goalkeeper amongst the eight quarter-finalists to have kept a clean sheet in all of his tournament matches so far, but the task facing him in Marrakesh tomorrow will not be easy.

Former African player of the year award-winners Osimhen and Lookman have tormented defences during the tournament, scoring three goals each.

Zidane, 27, kept clean sheets in group matches against Sudan and Burkina Faso before being rested against Equatorial Guinea.

He was recalled for a last-16 clash with the Democratic Republic of Congo and once again was unbeaten during a dramatic extra-time victory.

Former Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane, his Spanish wife and another son have been among the crowds in each match Luca played for the Desert Foxes.

“It is special when your family come to watch,” said Luca Zidane, who began his career with Real Madrid B in 2016 and now plays for Spanish second-tier side Granada.

Born in France, Zidane represented his country of birth at five age-limit levels. Under FIFA rules he could also play for Spain or Algeria, where his grandparents were born.

Zidane chose Algeria, debuting in a 2026 World Cup qualifying victory over Uganda last November and, when an injury ruled first choice Alexis Guendoez out of the AFCON, he was promoted.

“I am proud to represent Algeria and play in the Africa Cup of Nations. It is a great experience,” he told reporters.

“I try to be myself, to build my career on my terms, step by step,” he said.

Algeria have been an AFCON bogey team for Nigeria, winning four and drawing two of nine meetings, including a 5-1 drubbing of the Super Eagles en route to winning the 1990 tournament at home. But the current Super Eagles appear to be in the mood to get this one over the Algerians.

The Desert Foxes have put successive group-stage exits behind them under Bosnian coach Vladimir Petkovic and substitute Adil Boulbina unleashed a thunderbolt to eliminate DR Congo.

Nigeria are the 12-goal leading scorers in Morocco with Osimhen, Lookman and Akor Adams forming a potent frontline.

But coach Eric Chelle will be concerned that the three-time champions have conceded four, the most among the eight title hopefuls.

Sports

Palace ready To Sell Guehi For Right Price

Published

5 days ago

January 12, 2026

The Tide

Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner has said that the club would sell captain Marc Guehi this month if his asking price is met.

The England defender is out of contract in the summer and Manchester City have emerged as contenders to sign him during the January transfer window.

Palace blocked a proposed £35m move to Liverpool last summer but risk losing the 25-year-old for nothing at the end of the season.

City’s interest in Guehi has progressed following injuries to defenders Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias during Sunday’s draw against Chelsea.

“I’m not naive,” said Glasner, as reported by Tidesports source. “If a massive offer comes from City and Marc wants to do it, it will happen.”

Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid are among the European clubs to have shown an interest in signing Guehi on a free transfer, and he can sign a pre-contract agreement with an overseas club from this month.

“If you’re just valuing sports, everyone in the club will say Marc has to stay,” Glasner added. “The chairman will tell you the same. But it’s not one-dimensional. If you see the financial situation, it’s very important.

“If somebody comes, there will be a moment when the club says ‘now the financial issue is more important than the sports issue’.

“There will be a threshold where the club has to say it will happen, as long as Marc says ‘I want to leave’, because the final decision is always with the player.”

Guehi helped Palace finish 12th last season and win the FA Cup to qualify for Europe for the first time in the club’s history.

The Eagles then won the Community Shield in August, beating Premier League champions Liverpool on penalties, and are 14th in the table and through to the knockout phase play-offs in the Uefa Conference League.

“The chairman rejected many offers in the summer because we want to play a successful season and wanted to win the Community Shield,” Glasner added. “Therefore, Marc is important, and then he rejected the offer.

“The threshold at that time, the money we got offered was not above it. Maybe it was close, but it was not above.”