Sporting Lagos, the newly promoted Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) club, is making impressive strides with its unique approach to club management, MySportDab reports.
The Lagos-based team, under the stewardship of capable leaders, is establishing itself as one of the few privately owned clubs in the Nigerian top-flight.
In an exclusive interview with The ICIR, Chairman Godwin Enakhena unveiled exciting developments. He revealed that the club is constructing its own stadium within the Landmark vicinity of Victoria Island.
The stadium is nearing completion, standing at an impressive 85 percent, which eliminates the need for external stadium facilities. This strategic move underscores Sporting Lagos’s determination to stand on its own feet.
Established in 2022, the club had been sharing the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Onikan with other Lagos clubs.
However, with a vision to carve a distinct identity, club owner Shola Akinlade, a tech millionaire, initiated the construction of their own stadium.
This endeavor, now almost finalized, demonstrates Akinlade’s commitment to providing a dedicated home for Sporting Lagos.
Chairman Enakhena emphatically dismissed the notion that the club’s promotion to the NPFL was mere luck. He clarified that Sporting Lagos differentiates itself from its predecessors in both purpose and operations.
The club is centered around youth development and operates with a corporate business model. Enakhena emphasized that Sporting Lagos places paramount importance on delivering value to football enthusiasts.
Unlike past clubs in Lagos, such as MFM FC and Julius Berger, which lacked sustainable business strategies, Sporting Lagos enters the NPFL with a well-defined business model.
Enakhena stressed the significance of football as a thriving industry and the need to provide fans with compelling reasons to engage. The chairman declared, Football is big business, and it is about competition. You must give something to the fans.
Sporting Lagos’s remarkable journey includes triumphant successes in the Nigeria National League (NNL) and a decisive victory in the Naija Super 8 pre-season tournament, where they outperformed more seasoned NPFL opponents.
As the 2023/24 league season prepares to kick off on September 9th, the anticipation grows for Sporting Lagos’s inaugural campaign in the prestigious NPFL.
Under the leadership of Paul Offor, the team’s preparations are in full swing as they brace for an exciting debut in the domestic top division.
