NNL Super 8 Playoffs: Sporting Lagos FC Chairman rues failure to win competition

Posted : 13 July 2023

Newly promoted Sporting Lagos FC chairman, Godwin Enakhena has bemoaned his team’s inability to emerge as winners of the recently ended NNL Super 8.

He noted that the just concluded Super 8 that saw his team move up to the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) came with lots of sacrifices.

``I’m elated and it’s still like a dream that I don’t want to wake up from. That feeling you have when you put in the work and God crowns your effort.

``We just want to thank our proprietor, the entire management team, our coaching staff, the players, our ever present fans and indeed all that supported us in one way or the other. This is to you all. We did it together.

``The secret is God, good coaching, quality playing personnel, hard-work and motivation from the management.

``With these, the sky was going to be the limit and we’re delighted with what we’ve achieved as a collective,'' he said.

On the journey to the NPL, Enakhena a journalist of repute, described the journey as rough and turbulent.

``Rough and tough, but this is a road I’ve traveled many times before in the past, so it was a familiar terrain that I was prepared for.

``We’re just starting and we’ve just achieved the first target which is to get into the Nigeria Premier League. We will take it a step at a time in meeting other targets that include staying in the top division and playing on the continent.

``The difference between running MFM FC and Sporting Lagos FC is that while Sporting Lagos was set up for purely business, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries Football Club on the other hand was for empowering the youths through football. Dr Olukoya gave me total support and fortunately I’m enjoying same at Sporting Lagos.

``Based on what the IMC has done and what you and I saw last season, there’s no denying the fact that we’ve moved away from where we used to be, although we’re still not where we’re supposed to be.

``It’s a gradual process and we will get there, how soon is what I can’t say.

``We need to put the league on television, let’s have live games, the IMC should stay firm and very fast in decision taken against those bent on dragging the league down.

``Also important is the issue of payment of salaries to players and officials by the clubs and gradual disengagement of Government from running football clubs,'' he said.

Enakhena said that his greatest constraint as chairman of Sporting Lagos is the inability to get good training surfaces.

``The biggest challenge is the club’s inability to get good playing surfaces to train adequately as we would’ve loved to, aside this, everything is fine.

``We will definitely get the team reinforced to face the big boys in the NPFL and meet the expectations of our fans; and the target set for ourselves which I talked about earlier.

``This is a coaching forte and wouldn’t want to talk about this. What is certain is that we will have to strengthen the team.

``Sporting Lagos FC will give good and exciting football, super-match day hospitality like no other and a very conducive atmosphere for them to enjoy value for their time and money,'' he said.

Enakhena then pictured a frustrating figure of his team's inability to make it to the final of the NNL Super 8

``It was heartbreaking, our target was to come back to Lagos as champions of the NNL, and our little way of saying thank you to the founder Shola Akinlade and his team for the unbelievable support they’ve given the club since it was founded.

``But it didn’t happen, we just have to learn from the experience and move on.

``It’s football, sometimes you can’t explain what happened. You win some and lose some, but it’s always up to the next thing.

``We lost and that’s it, congratulations to Heartland for qualifying for the NPFL, just a season after they were relegated, that’s no mean feat,'' he said.

NNL Super 8 Playoffs: Sporting Lagos FC Chairman rues failure to win competition

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