Premier League Matches Return Sets Lagos Agog

It is no longer news that
Lagos used to be the Mecca of Nigeria football in the past due mainly to the number of clubs that once participated in the nation’s thriving league scene.
At the height of football splendour in Lagos, colourful sides like Stationery Stores FC, NEPA FC, ACB FC, Julius Berger FC and First Bank FC at one time or the order held their football fans spellbound with their magical displays.
But eventually the eminent status that Lagos had in Nigerian football petered out because of challenges culminating in poor performance that saw the high flying Lagos clubs relegated to the lower rung of the Nigerian league.
Fans hostilities during national football team matches and national league matches also aided in dousing the flame of football in the state.
Because of the unruly nature of the football fans, the then Nigeria Football Association (NFA) now known as the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), had to stage matches involving the Super Eagles in Port Harcourt and elsewhere.
The ensuing development gradually turned the National Stadium Surulere into a “Ghost Town’’ of sorts, in addition to the relegation of the once flamboyant clubs like Stationery Stores et al into obscurity.
But the impending campaign of Mountain of Fire and Miracle FC and Ikorodu United FC in the 2015/2016 Nigeria Professional Football League NPFL will no doubt reignite the passion for league football in Lagos.
It will be germane to note that football fans around the country are already re-cultivating the attitude of storming league matches to cheer their teams to victory.
As tge NPFL matches resume this month, opes are currently high among fans as they anticipate the re-emergence of league matches in football-starved Lagos ahead of the kick-off of the upcoming season in 2016.
The Chairman of Lagos State Football Association (LSFA), Seyi Akinwunmi, said that the promotion of the two Lagos sides to the NPFL would once more ignite league followership in the state.
Akinwunmi said that the remarkable development would spur the growth of grassroots football in the state, adding that LSFA would assist in preparing the clubs ahead of the new league season.
“I keep on telling people that if you allow me to jump and roll and scream, I will.
“This is because I have been hounded for the past four years by the press over the absence of Lagos clubs from the Nigeria Professional Football League.
“I told people that when the time comes, it will happen and it has happened in a big way and we’ve been proven right.
“The important thing is that Lagos clubs are prepared.
“When we were talking about that, all we wanted was for them to run the clubs properly.
“And as the season begins, we are going to do a lot in terms of preparing them.
“In terms of teaching the people about what to do and I am sure that football is back home,’’ he said.
In the same vein, a former Super Eagles midfielder, Friday Ekpo, said that the return of Lagos clubs to the Nigeria top league would spice up football in the state.
Ekpo, who plied his trade for the defunct Abiola Babes FC in the late 1980s, noted that it would redeem the image of football in Lagos.
“It is a great development and also good for football growth in Lagos. I vividly remember as a player, how fans usually troop out to watch league matches in the past.
“Football is back to its main arena and I know Lagos fans are happy with the development,’’ he said.
Nduka Ugbade, who played for the defunct Niger Dock FC of Lagos, said that the newly promoted teams should be given the much needed support to thrive in the league.
Ugbade said that the task ahead of the clubs went beyond gaining promotion to the NPFL, adding that the sustenance of the clubs in the league was vital.
“There was a time when we had more clubs from Lagos State in the league before everything went bad for most of the clubs.
“The promoted clubs will only remain in the league if they are adequately prepared and well funded.
“By so doing, more clubs from Lagos will gain promotion to the league and reignite passion for football in the state,’’ he said.
Also,  a board member of LSFA Falade Oyekan, said that the clubs’ promotion will boost football momentum in Lagos.
Oyekan said that it would also impact on the grassroots development of soccer, adding that the league had returned to its place of prominence.
“Lagos used to be the home of league football in the past and for a very long time we were starved because of the absence of clubs from Lagos.
“We are happy with this development and we know it will have positive impact on football in Lagos,’’ he said.
On the part of the teeming football fans in Lagos and its environs, expectations are high but the fans must learn to curb their unbridled exuberance and to make the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere a veritable Mecca for NPFL matches.
Ajayi writes for News Agency of Nigeria.

Kemi Ajayi