The Chairman, League Management Company (LMC), Shehu Dikko, on Friday praised the fans of the Lagos-based MFM FC for the spirit of sportsmanship they exhibited when their club was defeated by the visiting Remo Stars.
The opening match of Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) between home-based MFM FC and Remo Stars ended 2-0 in favour of the visiting Sky Blue Stars.
The match played at the newly refurbished Mobolaji Johnson Arena, formerly Onikan Stadium, saw both teams playing a high intensity and entertaining match.
Both goals of the match were scored in the second half of the game.
Qudus Akanni scored the first goal in the 55th minute after capitalising on a defensive error while Andy Okpe put the icing on the cake for the visitors in added time.
He tapped in a loose ball from the corner after the MFM FC’s defenders failed to clear their lines.
Although the opening fixtures did not go the way of the MFM FC fans, they kept their cool in the face of the boisterous Remo Stars fans who trooped to the stadium to cheer their club.
Commenting on the fair play on the part of the Olukoya Boys fans, Dikko, who was a special guest, said that such spirit was what the league needed to sustain the competition.
“The fans should continue with what they want to do for their teams, we want to see them supporting their clubs in the right way.
“Others should emulate the fans of MFM FC, they lost their game at home, but they still kept their cool, no violence or crowd troubles.
“This is how football should be played, anybody who claims to love NPFL and want it sustained should allow the spirit of sportsmanship to prevail,” he said.
Dikko, the 2nd Vice Chairman of Nigeria Football Federation, also disclosed that the league would have started earlier but was delayed to enable more sponsors to come on board
“I am glad that the league has kicked off, we wanted to start earlier, but we have a lot of plans on the table. There are many things we want to do.
“At the same time, we also understand that the fans are getting impatient, so we have to push it and get the league started.
“The first game here was fantastic, however we are looking for more improvement of the league to keep it self sustaining and that is part of what we are trying to do.
“We want improvement over the last season`s league where we were able to have live broadcast of the matches. We were able to have six matches out of 10 put on air, it is unprecedented,” he said.