Nigerian Football
Remo Stars break new ground, now have women’s football club
Remo Stars of Ikenne now has a women’s outfit. Having a women’s club is one of the conditions that CAF gave the clubs that are competing in both the Champions League and Confederation Cup this season.
Kunle Soname has revealed that a third arm of his football outfit has emerged. Besides the famed Remo Stars, he also has a cadet club, Beyond Limits which competed in the Federation Cup and also featured in competitions in Europe and America.
A female outfit is the third of the clubs under the umbrella of Remo Stars. “We have the Remo Stars Ladies who have just qualified from the amateur cadre of the league to the premier division”, Godwin Enakhena, the spokesman of the Nigeria Premier League Club Owners, quoted Soname as saying.
“I guess many didn’t know this. Watch out for us when the new season begins as Remo Stars Ladies will be as competitive as their male counterparts and will be an example of what a female professional football team will look like”, he revealed.
Nigeria will be represented by champions of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) Enyimba of Aba and second placed Remo Stars of Ikenne in the CAF Champions League, while third placed Rivers United and Federation Cup winners Bendel Insurance of Benin City will do battle in the CAF Confederation Cup respectively.
Enyimba FC have a women’s team known as Abia Angels, Rivers United have Rivers Angels while Bendel Insurance of Benin City have Edo Queens.
Meanwhile, in the draw conducted by CAF on Tuesday in Cairo, Egypt, Enyimba are to face Libya’s Al-Ahly Benghazi in the opening round of the CAF Champions League which kicks off on 18-19 of August, 2023.
Remo Stars will begin their quest for honours in Ghana as they are drawn to face Medeama. The Ghanaians will host the first leg in the weekend of 18 -19 August while the second leg is in Ikenne on either 25 or 26 August.
Federation Cup winners, Bendel Insurance are facing Algeria’s ASO Chlef in the preliminary round while Rivers United who are seeded will face the winner of the tie between Ziguinchor/Etoile Filante preliminary round tie.
The miserable run of Akwa United and Ikorodu City came to an end after six games in the Nigerian Premier League this season. Both teams were initially glued at the bottom of the league table.
They now got respite as Akwa United beat Kano Pillar by 2-0 while Ikorodu City even did what could be considered an upset, beating Bendel Insurance 3-0.
Remo Stars bounced back to the top of the log after a 3-0 defeat of Nasarawa United. Shooting Stars are yet to get their rhythm this season, playing a barren draw with Enyimba in Ibadan.
Kwara United who got their first full points of the season last week after a 1-0 defeat of Remo Stars could not consolidate as they were beaten 1-0 by Abia Warriors.
Heartland under Emmanuel Amuneke are gradually recovering as they got a valuable away draw against El-Kanemi Warriors.
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
It is 75 years since Nigeria’s national football team first played an international match. That was on 8 October 1949 when the first set of Nigeria’s assembly on their return voyage stopped over in Freetown and engaged Sierra Leone in an international football match. Nigeria won 2-0, setting a chain of positive results on 8 October.
The country never lost any competitive duel on that date. More significantly, the Super Eagles first qualified for the World Cup on an 8 October date.
That was in 1993 when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Algeria in the quest for USA ‘94 World Cup.
Nigeria became the first English-speaking African country to qualify for the World Cup. Another significance of the October 8 match at the July 5 Stadium, Algiers is that Nigeria were unbeaten for the first time by Algeria at home.
The only deviation from the 8 October Magic was in 2015 when Nigeria lost 2-0 to Congo in a friendly match.
Twenty-six years after Nigeria’s debut international match, one of Africa’s biggest football nations, Egypt fell to the October 8 magic, losing 4-0 to Nigeria in the last stage of the triangular World Cup qualifying series for Argentina ’78.
Up till October 15, 2013, when Ghana beat Egypt 6-1 in Kumasi, the October 8, 1977 duel with Nigeria remained Egypt’s biggest loss in a World Cup qualifying match.
Before the 1977 duel, Nigeria in 1963 played a friendly match with Liberia in Monrovia. The October 8 magic was active, even in an away match. Nigeria drew 2-2 in their very first encounter with Liberia. It was shortly after the team had, through a protest, upturned a victory by Guinea to pick Nigeria’s very first African Nations’ Cup ticket.
Little wonder then that when FIFA suspended Nigeria in 2010, the world governing body provisionally lifted the ban on October 8!
Nigeria on 8 October
- 1949 – Freetown (Friendly) Sierra Leone 0-2 Nigeria
- 1963 – Monrovia (Friendly) Liberia 2-2 Nigeria
- 1977 – Lagos (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 4-0 Egypt
- 1993 – Algiers (World Cup qualifier) Algeria 1-1 Nigeria… qualify for USA ‘94.
- 2005 – Abuja (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 5-1 Zimbabwe
- 2010 – FIFA, in apparent respect to the 8 October magic, provisionally lifted a ban imposed on Nigeria.
- 2011 – Abuja (African Nations Cup qualifier) Nigeria 2-2 Guinea. Although undefeated, Nigeria failed to make it to the 2012 African Nations Cup.
- 2015 – D.R. Congo beat Nigeria 2-0 in Visé, Belgium. The ‘October 8 Magic’ is finally broken.
Rivers United have launched themselves to the top of the log at the end of the match day 5 of the Nigeria Premier League. The Port Harcourt side beat Akwa United 2-1 to go afloat after initial leaders, Remo Stars crumbled to a 1-0 defeat at Kwara United in Ilorin on Sunday.
It was Remo Stars’ first defeat in the season. Rivers United are now with 13 points. Stephen Mayo put Rivers United ahead after 31 minutes. But it turned a temporary lead as Akwa United bounced back almost at the blast of the referee’s whistle for the second half.
Friday Apollos levelled up for Akwa United before Ndifreke Effiong Udo scored the winner in the 85th minute.
Sunday Results
- Kwara United 1-0 Remo Stars
- Rangers International 1-0 Abia Warriors
- Heartland FC 2-0 Niger Tornadoes
- Kano Pillars 2-0 Sunshine Stars
- Plateau United 1-0 Ikorodu City
- Rivers United 2-1 Akwa United
- Enyimba 3-0 Katsina United* Suspended
- Nasarawa 0-0 Bayelsa United
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