Nigerian clubs can’t win CAF champions league for now —Soname

Kunle Soname

The chairman of Remo Stars FC, Kunle Soname, has declared that it would be difficult for any Nigerian club to win the prestigious CAF Champions League for now. Enyimba of Aba is Nigeria’s most successful club, after winning the CAF Champions League twice in 2003 and 2004. The Peoples’ Elephants defeated Ismaily of Egypt 2-1 on goals aggregate to lift the title for the first time in 2003 to end Nigerians long wait. They retained the crown the following year, with cash and moral support flowing from former Abia State governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu.

Since then, Nigerian clubs merely make up the numbers in CAF competitions.

Speaking with The Guardia at Ikenne on Friday at the end of the 2023 MTN/NPFL/LaLiga U-15 tournament, Soname said: “I don’t see any Nigerian club winning the CAF Champions League for now because of the huge financial burden involved.”

This season, Remo Stars made its continental debut, but faded away in the early stage of the CAF Confederation Cup. The Ikenne Warriors lost at home 1-0 to Morocco’s AS FAR, after recording a soul lifting 1-1 draw away in Casablanca two weeks earlier. They lost 2-1 on aggregate to become the fifth Nigerian club to crash out to the ‘military’ tactics of the Royal Moroccan Army football club.

Soname whose football academy and sports facilities at Remo, Ikenne is attracting football scouts from across the world, said that Nigerian clubs does not have the financial capacity required to win the CAF Champions League at the moment.

“I am saying this with all sincerity because finance has a huge role to play in modern day football,” Soname said. “We played against Morocco’s AS FAR and lost due to a number of factors. In our team, the highest paid player earns around $1,000, if