Good day to all lovers of the People’s Elephants home and abroad, especially those of you who can’t wait for the season to start, rest assured August 28 is almost where, we will finally get to see if Enyimba’s secrecy during the pre-season will bear fruits.
I heard Ronaldinho might be coming out of retirement, maybe Enyimba has signed a player of similar reputation and have decided to keep him hidden as their trump card, all I can say is that come Sunday at the Bako Kontagora Stadium, all secrets will be revealed.
Talking about secrets it’s time to let you in on a matter that shouldn’t be kept from the public eye but the club only prefers to celebrate birthdays and keep vital updates from the fans.
Our city rivals Abia Warriors will use the Enyimba International Stadium to peruse their home games at the beginning of the season since the Umuahia Township Stadium is undergoing renovations, this is not a bad thing, however, the rate at which stadiums go out of commission in the League is alarming.
No room for maintenance
Over the years, Nigerian clubs have utilized neighbouring stadiums for their home matches and it looks like it’s not going to change anytime soon.
The recent one in the NPFL involved the teams participating in Continental competitions reaching out to NNL side Remo Stars for the use of their Stadium in Ikenne because it’s one of the few FIFA standard stadiums in the country.
Other teams in Europe do this as well, a couple of days ago Ukrainian side Shakhtar and Chelsea came to an agreement that Stamford Bridge will be used for Shakhtar’s League phase of the UEFA Champions League.
Coming back home, If all NPFL teams advance to the group stage of the continental competitions, there would be scheduling conflict for the Stadium use, Remo Stars themselves and the Remo Stars Ladies use this stadium even their academy side Beyond Limits play games in this stadium.
Even national teams like Super Falcons and Flamingoes occasionally use this stadium too.
If the organizers manage to get through the scheduling headache, there is the most important factor of all which is keeping the pitch in good condition for the next game.
The time frame which maintenance would be done is almost non-existent, even if the stadium managers work overtime, the wear and tear will get to the pitch eventually.
The only positive about the Stadium in Ikenne is that it is privately owned and Honorable Kunle Soname would not let his investment fall into ruins.
Lagos as an example
The Mobolaji Johnson Arena (Onikan Stadium) is another Stadium that will be panel beaten by multiple games next season, about five teams in the NPFL and NNL is set to use the Arena as their home stadium.
There would be almost no breathing space for the stadium managers when it comes to maintaining the Onikan Stadium, some parts of the stadium are unkept, while construction is not exactly complete in some parts of the facility.
The burden on the stadium is about to increase and at the end of the day when it is no longer suitable for use it becomes another abandoned project.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to Lagosians when the State football association announce that the stadium will undergo renovations before the start of next season due to what it will go through next season.
Consequences of Playing home away from home
The Enyimba International Stadium hosted the entire Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) Nationwide tournament before the start of the new season. The tournament offered promotion to two teams into the NWFL Championship and also gave football fans in Aba exciting matches during the pre-season.
However, it seems Nigerian football is not done with the People’s Elephants Stadium yet as Abia Warriors is set to utilize it for their home matches and an important thing to note is that stadium renovations in Nigeria take months to be completed and it backfires on the teams.
A prime example would be Sunshine Stars in the 2024/25 NPFL season, they had to shuffle between Stadiums while the Akure Township Stadium was being renovated, by the time the season was over they got relegated and could only play there in the 2025/26 NNL season.
When a Nigerian team shifts home ground, it sometimes becomes difficult to pull crowd like they would on match days as some fans might deem the new location too far to travel, some set of fans might not even feel comfortable in an atmosphere that isn’t actually theirs.
Abia Warriors playing in the same state might reduce the travel burden on the home fans but the bigger issue is what this means for the facility in question, if those in charge of Nigerian football don’t focus on the development of the stadiums in the country, Enyimba and other NPFL clubs would eventually suffer the agony of losing a significant part of their supporters.
