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In a country where most professional football clubs are run as a public service enterprise, Remo Stars standout as a modern sports management model in Nigeria.
Remo stars is one of the few privately owned and managed football club in Nigeria professional football League (NPFL), owned by sports entrepreneur, businessman and politician, Kunle Soname.
Soname also own a top European football club, Portuguese second division side, Clube Desportivo Feirense and is in process of trying to transfer the European club management style to his home country club- Remo Stars.
The Major Problem with Nigeria League
The playing field is however different in Nigeria. Majority of clubs are owned and funded by the state government through tax payers money, as part of its social services. Therefore, clubs are not driven to make commercial profit and a lot of things are being left to complacency. clubs are not managed professionally or as a business venture.
Club ownership in Nigeria has been pin pointed as one of the major reasons the league football in Nigeria is in its current poor state. It is believed that the current government ownership of majority of the clubs has hugely hampered on the development and professionalism in the running of the affairs of clubs. Contracts are often breached and players remunerations are delayed or forfeited (denied)
With the continuing increase in the capital outlay of running a club, how is Remo stars (a privately owned club) surviving in such an unfavourable competitive league environment and even standing out as a model.
Profiling Remo Stars:
Nickname: The Sky Blue, Remo stars became a professional club 2010. With now an approximate market value of close to $170,000 the Remo Stars is beginning to make waves in the Nigerian football scene lately.
Remo stars first gained promotion to the Nigerian Professional Football League in 2016. Unfortunately, they were relegated again in 2018 and got promotion back in 2021. Their performance in the league so far this season is commendable and speaks of a bright future.
Home Stadium
Remo stars is one of the few Nigeria professional clubs that own their Stadium. Remo stars stadium at Ayepe Road, Ikenne, is a 20,000 capacity lush natural grass pitch, WiFi free and a kind of smart stadium, with gadgets for live broadcast and data collection network. Good parking space and a wheelchair entrance for physical challenged persons.
Business Model
Remo stars is a grooming place for young talented footballer with a long-term plan of transferring them to bigger clubs as their market value increases. Therefore, the club have a very viable academy system, where young talents of about 15 to 17 years are taken in, groomed until they begin to play for the professional first team.
Remo stars hardly buy already made players from other professional clubs. They prefer to groom their own players themselves.
However, moving from the academy to their professional team, a transparent contract is signed and followed althrough the duration of the player in the club.
Remo Stars Academy
They have an under 17 academy that is doing very well. The team scouts players from a young age and trains them. The selection process is very transparent and simple and takes place annually. The coach of the under 17 is Ajibolade Olumide. The Remo Stars players are relatively young and have a promising future ahead.
The team is also young but progressing well. Remo Stars hope to start winning trophies while building and solidifying their spot in the Nigerian Professional Football League.
Sponsorship
Remo stars is one of the professional clubs in Nigeria that has a robust sponsorship deal. Remo stars are funded through sponsorship deals obtained from the various companies of Kunle Soname.
In 2016 - 2018 Remo stars closed a shirt Sponsorship deal with 9jabet, a sport betting company own by Soname. And currently they running a shirt sponsorship deal with Value Jet, an airline also own by Soname.
Affiliation
Soname also the owner of Clube Desportivo Feirense in Portugal, there's a natural affiliation and the Portuguese team has become a place of training and internship for Remo stars coaching crew and management staff.
Fan Base, Marketing and Social Media
Remo stars is one of the few professional clubs that are strategically growing their fans base, estimated to be about one million now, with average attendance to home game 13,000+ The attendance growth rate have been more steady this season following Remo Stars unbeaten run in NFL for 10 weeks.
Remo stars connect and engage with fans through their website and various social media handles:
Remo Stars FC Instagram Their Instagram is @remostars. They have over 7000 followers as of February 2022.
Remo Stars FC Twitter Their Twitter profile is @RemoStarsSC. They have over 18,000 followers at the time of writing. They post photos of their players, game highlights, fixtures and lineups.
Remo Stars FC Facebook Their Facebook is Remo Stars Sports Club. As of February 2022, they have over 30,000 followers. They are very active in providing updates to their fans about the games and their management.
Remo Stars F.C. website Their website is remostarsfc.com. Their website contains information about the club, their games, fixtures, results and any updates for the fans.
