Nigerian Football
HOW STATIONERY STORES BECAME ‘SUPER STORES’
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Officially, the name of the hitherto Lagos fanatically supported club is Stationery Stores Football Club of Lagos. But ithe club which clocks 60 this week has been variously called some other names.
In fact when the Daily Service edition of March 28, 1959 published the list of clubs that were to compete in the newly formed Lagos Commercial League, the club was listed top as ‘Stationery Wanderers’.
The club secretary was named as Mr. A. Adeoye. Being the brainchild of Israel Adebajo, it was not a surprise that the club was also nicknamed the “Adebajo Babes”.
That step was apparently followed by another foremost sports and general philanthropist, Bashorun MKO Abiola, who christened his 1980-acquired Ewekoro Cement Football Club ‘Abiola Babes’.
Another name that the club is called was ‘Flaming Flamengoes’. This is even reflected in its emblem. It may have emerged from the manner the club’s fame and influence spread like a wild bush fire.
But the commonest of the nicknames of the club is that of ‘Super Stores”. According to the late Babatunde Oshuntolu, he was the architect of the name.
He wrote that when Stores won the inaugural edition of the Oba Cup in grand style by beating one of the more popular clubs in Lagos, ECN, by 5-1 in the final; he chose to adapt his headline of the story in the Daily Express from the one he got in the British Daily Express when Scotland surprisingly beat England in Wembley after a succession of defeats.
“It was a Saturday. And the next day’s issue of the broadsheet, London Daily Express carried this headline on its eight-column back page: “Super Scots”!
“Only two weeks later, Stationery Stores whipped ECN (which later became NEPA) 5-1 at the Lagos City Stadium (later Onikan Stadium), in an Oba of Lagos Cup final widely predicted to be very keen.
The next day’s issue of the Daily Express in Lagos screamed “Super Stores!” Oshuntolu wrote that that tag had been accepted since then”.
The club had indeed been super, setting the pace in certain ways as the first to get yearly promotion from its foundation year as a division three side, to becoming the last to win a major trophy in Lagos – the War Memorial Cup – as well as being the first to win the replacement trophy – the Oba Cup.
There were even greater feats- as the first privately owned club to win the Nigeria national cup, the Challenge Cup in 1967 as well as the first club to represent Nigeria in the continent in 1968.
There were even more! Stationery Stores was the first Nigerian club to introduce club camping when the team camped in Ikorodu for two months; as well as being the first to provide a bus to its squad.
It was not just the first Nigerian club side to go international, it was the first to develop a close relationship with a foreign club when it started a home and away series with Ghana’s Accra Great Olympics.
It also had a wider recruitment drive than any other Nigerian club, sourcing for talents nationwide as well as combing the West Coast of Africa for the best available players.
That way, the club was able to assemble a dreaded side that brought players like Peter Anieke, Tony Igwe and many other players from Jos Plateau, Peter Amaechina from Ibadan, Peter Fregene from Amukpe and players of Ghanaian and Togolese extractions like Willie Andrew and Adoquaye Laryea among others. When the club won the Challenge Cup in 1982, beating Niger Tornadoes 4-1in the final, it became the first national division three side to do so.
For the meritorious services rendered to sports in Nigeria, Israel Adebajo who passed on in 1969 was in 1980 given a post humours award of Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR) by the Second Republic president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari.
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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