3SC: On the day that the calabash broke in Ibadan...

[Toxicarrow]

The headline of Tribune (or was it Sketch) the morning after this game was: "Calabash broke"...

[Gotti]

Na lie! Vasco beat Sootin’ 3-0 in Ibadan in a league game in the 1970s (EII can verify )...

[Toxicarrow]

Na lie! Vasco beat Sootin’ 3-0 in Ibadan in a league game in the 1970s (EII can verify )...

You see this man and the need to make the Vasco relevant at all cost Na WNDC weu Vasco beat 3 kondo in 1972 league.

Joke aside: While Arowolo's historical reference might be wrong, I was more interested in the relegation story because that story captures partly the beginning of "things falling apart" in 3SC management and where the club is today

[Toxicarrow]

Looking at this pic and also thinking of the current state of 3SC, I could not fight back tears in my eyes. Almost half of these guys in this picture of 1984 IICC Shooting Stars that lost to Zamalek in the final of Champions Cup are "late" ...Raymond King (not mentioned by the original poster of the pic) is also 'late'. He was the middle guy (in green) between Owolabi (on the left) and Muda Lawal (on the right). It also shows the short life span of an average Nigerian.

[YemiBrazil]

Na lie! Vasco beat Sootin’ 3-0 in Ibadan in a league game in the 1970s (EII can verify )...

Mods!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is this act of deliberately posting hitherto unknown provocative history capable of dampening the morale of some esteemed forumers in this period of covid-19 now allowed on this forum???
I see this as a 'banable' offence! Period.

[txj]

Na lie! Vasco beat Sootin’ 3-0 in Ibadan in a league game in the 1970s (EII can verify )...

All these leftists Vasco supporters...Let sleeping dogs die!!!

[Toxicarrow]

[Toxicarrow]

Na lie! Vasco beat Sootin’ 3-0 in Ibadan in a league game in the 1970s (EII can verify )...

Mods!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is this act of deliberately posting hitherto unknown provocative history capable of dampening the morale of some esteemed forumers in this period of covid-19 now allowed on this forum???
I see this as a 'banable' offence! Period.

I second this motion

[azuka]

Na lie! Vasco beat Sootin’ 3-0 in Ibadan in a league game in the 1970s (EII can verify )...

You see this man and the need to make the Vasco relevant at all cost Na WNDC weu Vasco beat 3 kondo in 1972 league.

Joke aside: While Arowolo's historical reference might be wrong, I was more interested in the relegation story because that story captures partly the beginning of "things falling apart" in 3SC management and where the club is today

And there's even a match in the league played in Liberty that Rangers beat IICC. I know because i was on holiday that summer in Ibadan. And was at the stadium to watch the match. This was actually in the early '80s too.

[Toxicarrow]

Na lie! Vasco beat Sootin’ 3-0 in Ibadan in a league game in the 1970s (EII can verify )...

You see this man and the need to make the Vasco relevant at all cost Na WNDC weu Vasco beat 3 kondo in 1972 league.

Joke aside: While Arowolo's historical reference might be wrong, I was more interested in the relegation story because that story captures partly the beginning of "things falling apart" in 3SC management and where the club is today

And there's even a match in the league played in Liberty that Rangers beat IICC. I know because i was on holiday that summer in Ibadan. And was at the stadium to watch the match. This was actually in the early '80s too.

I doubt this one.....In the league matches between 1980 and 1985, Spartans was the team that came close to beating Shooting at home before the 1986 session when we had at least 2 or 3 home defeats. That was 1985 session, which we started with the "serious" beating of Mighty Jets (7-1). Spartans came to Ibadan and tormented Sooting so badly that our "star loaded" squad could not walk after the game. We had the likes of Mumumi Kelani, Samson Ozogula and Clement Temile that year, and yet it was "wahala" that year under the stewardship of Segun Odegbami. If my memory serve me right, we came from 3 goals down to tie the game - 3-3.

[Gotti]

Na lie! Vasco beat Sootin’ 3-0 in Ibadan in a league game in the 1970s (EII can verify )...

Mods!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is this act of deliberately posting hitherto unknown provocative history capable of dampening the morale of some esteemed forumers in this period of covid-19 now allowed on this forum???
I see this as a 'banable' offence! Period.

That historic lineup...

Umelo

Adiele
Ekeji
Emordi
Okonjo

Ariri
Udemba

Adimora
Nwokocha
Nwadioha
Nwankwo

This team (coached by “Prof” Alabi Assien) could have easily beaten Liverpool, with the likes of Alphonso Dike, Nnamdi "Stability" Egbukichi, Tony Uzoka and even Ignatius "IG" Ilechukwu (a latter-day Eagles) confined to the Subs' bench. Sootin' stood ZERO chance! Only the duplicity NFA prevented this team from winning the league. Within a few years thereafter, Adiele and Okonjo headed off to Insurance, while Ekeji, Emordi, Adimora and Ilechukwu ended up at Rangers, and Nwokocha and Udemba off to US.

[Gotti]

You see this man and the need to make the Vasco relevant at all cost Na WNDC weu Vasco beat 3 kondo in 1972 league.

Joke aside: While Arowolo's historical reference might be wrong, I was more interested in the relegation story because that story captures partly the beginning of "things falling apart" in 3SC management and where the club is today

Btw, it was NOT on 1972...
Vasco was not in the league until 1973 or 1974.

Also, don’t think Sootin was in the league in 1972 either....
And it was IICC and not WNDC (not that it makes a substantive difference).

Rather than you Sootiners re-writing history...
Concentrate on your 3 name changes, 3 relegations and 1 disbandment.
>

[Toxicarrow]

You see this man and the need to make the Vasco relevant at all cost Na WNDC weu Vasco beat 3 kondo in 1972 league.

Joke aside: While Arowolo's historical reference might be wrong, I was more interested in the relegation story because that story captures partly the beginning of "things falling apart" in 3SC management and where the club is today

Btw, it was NOT on 1972...
Vasco was not in the league until 1973 or 1974.

Also, don’t think Sootin was in the league in 1972 either....
And it was IICC and not WNDC (not that it makes a substantive difference).

Rather than you Sootiners re-writing history...
Concentrate on your 3 name changes, 3 relegations and 1 disbandment.
>

Gotti
I got the date from the review of the book on Enugu Rangers. Based on the league historical stats on this page (See here: http://www.rsssf.com/tablesn/nig72.html#72) that Enugu 11 used to maintain, you were right. Vasco was not in the league in 1972. Vasco joined the league in 1974.

I will double check if Sooting was in the league in 1972 or not. Though the page above indicated "no', I will still check my own records as well as the two books on the club on when Sooting joined the league.

[azuka]

Na lie! Vasco beat Sootin’ 3-0 in Ibadan in a league game in the 1970s (EII can verify )...

You see this man and the need to make the Vasco relevant at all cost Na WNDC weu Vasco beat 3 kondo in 1972 league.

Joke aside: While Arowolo's historical reference might be wrong, I was more interested in the relegation story because that story captures partly the beginning of "things falling apart" in 3SC management and where the club is today

And there's even a match in the league played in Liberty that Rangers beat IICC. I know because i was on holiday that summer in Ibadan. And was at the stadium to watch the match. This was actually in the early '80s too.

I doubt this one.....In the league matches between 1980 and 1985, Spartans was the team that came close to beating Shooting at home before the 1986 session when we had at least 2 or 3 home defeats. That was 1985 session, which we started with the "serious" beating of Mighty Jets (7-1). Spartans came to Ibadan and tormented Sooting so badly that our "star loaded" squad could not walk after the game. We had the likes of Mumumi Kelani, Samson Ozogula and Clement Temile that year, and yet it was "wahala" that year under the stewardship of Segun Odegbami. If my memory serve me right, we came from 3 goals down to tie the game - 3-3.

I watched two Rangers and IICC matches at Liberty stadium back in the early 80s. One of those matches was the last match of the season and Rangers had already won the league when they came to Ibadan. That match ended 0-0 even though Rangers scored a good goal that was disallowed. Rangers was coached then by that Brazilian coach.
The other match is one Rangers actually beat IICC in Ibadan. Same stadium too. This match though is a bit hazy to me. I remember watching this too.

[Toxicarrow]

You see this man and the need to make the Vasco relevant at all cost Na WNDC weu Vasco beat 3 kondo in 1972 league.

Joke aside: While Arowolo's historical reference might be wrong, I was more interested in the relegation story because that story captures partly the beginning of "things falling apart" in 3SC management and where the club is today

Btw, it was NOT on 1972...
Vasco was not in the league until 1973 or 1974.

Also, don’t think Sootin was in the league in 1972 either....
And it was IICC and not WNDC (not that it makes a substantive difference).

Rather than you Sootiners re-writing history...
Concentrate on your 3 name changes, 3 relegations and 1 disbandment.
>

Gotti
I got the date from the review of the book on Enugu Rangers. Based on the league historical stats on this page (See here: http://www.rsssf.com/tablesn/nig72.html#72) that Enugu 11 used to maintain, you were right. Vasco was not in the league in 1972. Vasco joined the league in 1974.

I will double check if Sooting was in the league in 1972 or not. Though the page above indicated "no', I will still check my own records as well as the two books on the club on when Sooting joined the league.

Gotti,
As promised, information from LMC indicated that Sooting was in the league in 1972 (see here: https://npfl.ng/team/shooting-stars/). Additionally, Kunle Solaja's 2017 article- Shooting Stars: Once Upon a glorious past – confirmed that 1972 date as well.

Though he did not explicitly state the date 1972, coach Alan Hawkes ( aka Alani Asha) also briefly wrote on the preparation of Sooting for the the national league division 1 immediately after the civil war (on p. 58 -64) in his book - Up Coach: The story of a soccer missionary. On pages 111- 139 of the book, he provided descriptive account of the first road trip of Sooting to Enugu after the civil war and how that first league game between the two teams - Sooting and Enugu Rangers- ended 0-0.

Nonetheless, what the above shows is that we are a nation with poor record-keeping culture
Once the lockdown is over here, I intend to make a trip to the archive to look at some of old issues of Daily Times Newspaper of 1972 to see what were on the sport pages.

Thank you for this exchange, which is turning out to be a good history lesson/exercise

[Toxicarrow]

Na lie! Vasco beat Sootin’ 3-0 in Ibadan in a league game in the 1970s (EII can verify )...

You see this man and the need to make the Vasco relevant at all cost Na WNDC weu Vasco beat 3 kondo in 1972 league.

Joke aside: While Arowolo's historical reference might be wrong, I was more interested in the relegation story because that story captures partly the beginning of "things falling apart" in 3SC management and where the club is today

And there's even a match in the league played in Liberty that Rangers beat IICC. I know because i was on holiday that summer in Ibadan. And was at the stadium to watch the match. This was actually in the early '80s too.

I doubt this one.....In the league matches between 1980 and 1985, Spartans was the team that came close to beating Shooting at home before the 1986 session when we had at least 2 or 3 home defeats. That was 1985 session, which we started with the "serious" beating of Mighty Jets (7-1). Spartans came to Ibadan and tormented Sooting so badly that our "star loaded" squad could not walk after the game. We had the likes of Mumumi Kelani, Samson Ozogula and Clement Temile that year, and yet it was "wahala" that year under the stewardship of Segun Odegbami. If my memory serve me right, we came from 3 goals down to tie the game - 3-3.

I watched two Rangers and IICC matches at Liberty stadium back in the early 80s. One of those matches was the last match of the season and Rangers had already won the league when they came to Ibadan. That match ended 0-0 even though Rangers scored a good goal that was disallowed. Rangers was coached then by that Brazilian coach.
The other match is one Rangers actually beat IICC in Ibadan. Same stadium too. This match though is a bit hazy to me. I remember watching this too.

I hear on that (i.e hazy memory). This is why it's good to have well-kept written records and libraries, instead of we depending on our individual memories for recollections of events of over 30 years ago. The truth is that many of us watched the games (and still watching ) for the fun NOT as keepers of historical data or information for our generation and the future ones. As noted above in my response to Gotti about the pioneer clubs in the league, it's sad that we are a nation with poor record keeping tradition.

[Toxicarrow]

Here is that 2017 article of Kunle Solaja:

Shooting Stars: Once Upon a glorious past – By Kunle Solaja

As the Nigerian Professional Football League came to an end for the Season 2016/17, it once again claimed a familiar victim, Shooting Stars which shot into its familiar path – relegation!

Founded in 1962, not only is the club the oldest among the elite division clubs in Nigeria, it is perhaps the most experienced, having experienced everything that is a football league – title winning, struggle to win title, losing title, battle against relegation, relegation, battle to get promotion and getting promotion.

For perspective observers, the current relegation was a disaster that waited to happen. It is the fifth time that the club has had to drop to the lower league since its first in 1986 in the then National Division 1 League.

Relegation is therefore not new to the pace-setting club in every aspect conceivable, be it positive or negative.

Just as it was the first to win continental title of the now defunct African Winners Cup in 1976 and the CAF Cup in 1992, it was also Nigeria’s first league champion to be relegated in 1999 after winning title in 1998.

Among the original clubs that started a national football league in Nigeria in 1972, it has been relegated most. Only Bendel Insurance has stayed longer in the lower division.

It is a sad commentary that a club that had produced some of the best football talents in the country had become a shadow of its glorious past.

When CAF first ranked clubs in the late 1990, Shooting Stars was among the top 10 in the continent. The saga of Shooting Stars is almost a story of once upon a glorious past.

Consider the stars that have been churned out in almost every department of football – goalkeeping, defence, midfield, attack and the wings! The goalkeeper of the Africa Cup of Nations Cup in 1980 was Best Ogedegbe of Shooting Stars.

Recall defenders like Tunde Bamidele, Samuel Ojebode and Joe Appiah of the glorious era. Who will easily forget the exploits of the inimitable Muda Lawal or the goal scoring exploits of forwards like Segun Odegbami and Rashidi Yekini?

Even Kunle Awesu emerged as the best left winger at the 1976 Africa Cup of Nation in Ethiopia.

This is a club that emerged Nigeria’s double champion in 1995 – carting away the league title and FA Cup. Those were the glorious past. In the past 19 years when the club last won a national title, Shooting Stars are noted more for tribulations than for quest for honours.

Yet, this trend is not restricted to the Shooting Stars. Until last season when Enugu Rangers won the league for the first time on 33 years, the club had been relegated to the realm of anonymity in the continent.

Yet some decades ago, the trio of Rangers, Shooting Stars and Bendel Insurance had fame that sent jitters on various fields in the continent. Insurance had since been lost in the lower league where it appeared to have taken a chairmanship position.

Lack of proper football administrative structures are responsible for the perennial decline of Nigeria’s hitherto great clubs.

They will not imbibe structures that have seen clubs in Europe and other parts of the world become well sort brands that not just struggle to win titles, but are also profit inclined.

It is not limited to just Nigeria. African football fields are littered with the carcases of former great clubs that have either gone into extinction or barely struggling for survival.

While Europe and other parts of the world boast of time-tested club sides some almost clocking the century or even beyond, clubs in Africa hardly spend three decades before decadence sets in. Few examples are sufficient.

Oryx Douala of Cameroon, founded in April 1907 won the inaugural African Cup of Champions Clubs in 1964 after beaten Stade Malien of Mali.

They have also won five league titles and the Cameroon Cup three times, most of which came in the 1960s.

They were semi-finalists and quarter-finalists in the continental clubs competition in 1966 and 1968 respectively before fading out of reckoning. Today, the maiden African clubs champions are amateurs in the lower Cameroun league.

Tonnerre Kalara of Yaoundé is another former great club from Cameroon. At its peak in the 1970s and 1980s, the club won national championship five times, the same number of times it won the national cup.

It won the African Winners Cup (now Confederation Cup) in 1975 and runners-up in 1976. Among the club’s notable players was Roger Milla, who was voted the African Player of the Century in 2000.

Others include Rigobert Song and former FIFA World Player of the Year, George Weah.

Canon Sportif de Yaoundé, commonly referred to as Canon Yaoundé, is another Cameroon football club based in Yaoundé. The club was formed in 1930.

Their most successful period was in the 1970s and 1980s when they were a dominant force in Cameroonian and African football, winning eight national championships, eight Cameroonian Cups, three African Champions’ Cups and one African Cup Winners’ Cup.

Across in West Africa are other former greats like Hafia of Guinea, Asante Kotoko of Ghana and Stade Abidjan of Cote d’Ivoire. Hafia Football Club is based in Conakry.

In the 1960s the team was known as Conacry II, and won three titles under that name. It dominated the African football in the 1970s, winning the African Cup of Champion Clubs in 1972, 1975 and 1977.

By the 1980s, Hafia has faded out of continental reckoning, managing to reach the second round of the competition in 1983. Their city rivals, Horoya even had a shorter time on the continental stage, winning the African Winners Cup in 1978.

Perhaps the situation is more pronounced in Nigeria where an army of great football clubs have been relegated almost the position of anonymity in the continent. Super Stores, the fanatically supported Lagos club side, the first Nigerian side to feature in Africa’s inter-club competition has gone into extinction.

Enugu Rangers which got to the final of the 1975 African Cup of Champions Club and holders of the 1977 African Winners Cup waited for 33 years before winning a Nigerian title in 2016.

Bendel Insurance, winners of the CAF Cup in 1994 are struggling in the lower rung of the Nigerian league. There is therefore an urgent need to have a regulated structure for our clubs. Otherwise, the same clubs that are perceived to be doing well today, will go the way of Shooting Stars and others.
https://dailybulletin4u.wordpress.com/2 ... le-solaja/

[Toxicarrow]

3SC: The slow death of a cultural icon
By Oluwashina Okeleji, Contributor
22 September 2017 | 3:57 am

As far as clubs with history go, there are few as influential as Shooting Stars SC (3SC). Back in 1976, the famed club from Ibadan became the first Nigerian clubside to win an African club competition, and is to this day, one of only two (the other being Enyimba) to taste victory twice on the continent.

Their five league titles and four FA Cups makes them one of the most successful teams in the country, and their fan base is large—the Lekan Salami Stadium seats just under 20,000, but is regularly packed out for the Oluyole Warriors on Matchday.

When the 2017/2018 season resumes though, this storied club will be conspicuously absent from the league roster. They were one of four teams to suffer the ignominy of relegation in 2016/2017, amassing 13 wins and averaging less than a goal a game in a largely forgettable campaign.

Ironically, their 50-point haul would have seen them to safety in in each of the last three campaigns, but that is cold comfort for a side that earned promotion back to the NPFL only three seasons ago. As a matter of fact, their best position in the last decade, almost half of which has been spent out of the top flight, was 9th in 2015; they have trod water most of the way through and can feel like they have had this coming.

Trying to diagnose what or where exactly it went wrong is a bit of a problematic exercise. I saw Shooting Stars host two-time African champions Enyimba this past season in front of a vocal home crowd, and more than deserve their 1-0 victory. They hammered the People’s Elephant relentlessly, and could have run up the score with a bit more of a clinical touch. So, while ultimately they fell short, this did not seem like 3SC were one of the worst four teams in the league.

Inevitably, the buck then passes onto the administration. That a large majority of Nigerian clubs are bankrolled by state governments is nothing new, but the unfortunate effect of this is that clubs suffer or prosper as a consequence of the level of priority each regime accords to sports in general, and football in particular.

Executive Chairman of the club Gbolagade Busari earlier in the week insisted there had been adequate funding for the team from the state government, which makes it odd then that players of the club, on the eve of the final game of the season, staged a strike demanding payment of outstanding salaries and allowances. Where then did the monthly subventions go?

“The players said pointedly that they are fighting for their right to be paid salaries, allowances and match bonuses,” a source told Supersport

“They are insisting on not calling off the strike or returning to the training ground until every indebtedness owed to them is fully paid by the management. They feared that the management will not pay the outstanding entitlements once the on-going league season comes to an end on Sunday. They appeared not to trust the management any longer as previous promises to off-set the bills have gone unheeded. They reasoned that if the management value their welfare and the interest of the team they could even break bank to pay knowing fully well that anything short of three points at Niger Tornadoes will spell doom for the team.”

The players would of course go on to lose that final game in Lokoja, and while it is easy to blame the strike action, that would ignore the larger picture. A distinct lack of stability over the last decade is not the result of an isolated strike action, but of the very source of the agitation.

There has to be greater accountability and a coherent plan for the club going forward. The Executive Chairman has teased wholesale changes from top to bottom, a move which seems more reactionary than visionary. It was telling that Mr Busari mentioned gate takings during matches (even though the figure of one million Naira given does not add up), as this is one area from which the club can get ancillary financing; even while in the Nigeria Nationwide League, the support for 3SC is full-blooded and intense.

To the residents of Ibadan, and many such as myself [a Stationary Stores fan] who chose to support the club that produced Nigerian footballing greats like Felix Owolabi, the late Muda Lawal and Segun Odegbami; stars of the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations, Shooting Stars SC is more than just a club. It is a cultural icon.

Until those in charge see it as such, and honour its history and tradition, this is what it will be reduced to: a yoyo club.

https://guardian.ng/sport/3sc-the-slow- ... ural-icon/