Shooting Stars Sports Club have been disbanded by the Oyo State government, who own and finance the club.

Mutiu Adepoju, who was until the disbandment, the Chief Executive of the club, told KickOffNigeria.com that he received the information on Tuesday morning.

"I was informed by the club's Administrative Secretary that the commissioner of sports directed him to let the players and officials know that the club has been disbanded," Adepoju, a former international, told KickOffNigeria.com.

However, Adepoju says he is yetr to receive formal written notification. "That may come later, but as far we know, all the players and officials have been asked to go.

"I don't know what the next step for the club will be."

The first of that next step will be to pay up outstanding debts of around N160 million owed to players, officials, other clubs and hotels.

"We are owing debts of between N150 million to N160 million," Adepoju told KickOffNigeria.com. "It includes outstanding sign-on fees and salaries to players, clearance fees to other clubs, and unpaid hotel bills."

This will mark the second time in their history that the club, one of the oldest in Nigeria, will be disbanded.

The first was in 1984, when a team comprising some of the finest local talent available, lost the CAF Champions Cup final to Zamalek on home soil at the National Stadium, Lagos.

Colonel Oladayo Popoola, Military Governor of Oyo State at the time, was so riled he promptly disbanded the team.

Revived later, Shooting have fallen on bad times in the twenty years, enduring a yoyo existence up and down the Premier League.

Last season, the club escaped relegation only on the last day of the season. A disgraceful state of affairs for a club which has won the Nigerian title a record five times, although their last triumph came in 1998.

http://www.kickoff.com/news/25790/shooting-stars-sports-club-have-been-disbanded.php

Why not just sell both clubs rather than disbanding them?

Used to be my darling club wayback then besides NNB, Rangers & Bendel Insurance.

If not for corruption, how much does it take to run a naija club on a monthly basis, doubt if it'll be up to N10million, but if left unpaid, it piles up. Shame on oyo govt, shame on mutiu for being a poor manager!

not surprised. typically :-x

valacious:

If not for corruption, how much does it take to run a naija club on a monthly basis, doubt if it'll be up to N10million, but if left unpaid, it piles up. Shame on oyo govt, shame on mutiu for being a poor manager!

As much as I would want to apportion blames, please I won't want you to blame Mutiu. IMO he was only an employee who wasn't given the right tools (financial in this case) to do his job as you don't expect him to run the club with his money. That said the government of Oyo state at a time had frictions with Mutiu over the running of the club and these were issues that bothers on professional running of the club as Mutiu stood his ground on these issues. To say the least the state government is just not the sports type if not #160m shouldn't be an issue that will lead to disbanding the club.

RE BRAND OR DIE (SIMPLE)

The Nigeria club sides and the NFL are over grown babies that should be walking but still on the ground. How do you expect any meaningfull government/governor/Business  concern to be feeding a football team for over 15 year without any revenue coming to the team.

What our clubs league need is sponsor/ revenue from gate taking/merchandise sales etc. We watch Julius Barger club, Udoji unit, Abiola babes etc fold up due largely to over dependence on individual or organisation. More, will still go if the issue of generation of revenue is not address.

Gone are the days were people support a team just because of Name. Now it is what you have to offer in teams of performance , parkage.

honeric01:

Why not just sell both clubs rather than disbanding them?

I agree with you but I think giving them out for free would've been more realistic. Nigerian clubs are run at a lose. Therefore, whosoever that acquires such a liability would still invest in the club but in this case expect no returns on his investment.

Why??alongside Rangers of Enugu and Insurance of Benin that was one of our traditional clubs still existing today, seriously the future of Naija football is bleak,is dia light at the end of the tunnel??i doubt O!!

sml

blackchief:

RE BRAND OR DIE (SIMPLE)

The Nigeria club sides and the NFL are over grown babies that should be walking but still on the ground. How do you expect any meaningfull government/governor/Business  concern to be feeding a football team for over 15 year without any revenue coming to the team.

What our clubs league need is sponsor/ revenue from gate taking/merchandise sales etc. We watch Julius Barger club, Udoji unit, Abiola babes etc fold up due largely to over dependence on individual or organisation. More, will still go if the issue of generation of revenue is not address.

Gone are the days were people support a team just because of Name. Now it is what you have to offer in teams of performance , parkage.

Exactly my thought. The only statement in ur post I disagree with to an extent is this: "Gone are the days were people support a team just because of Name". People support clubs due to performance only when the clubs are foreign to them, but the people who the club is in their locality would always support their team no matter what. The reasons Nigerians seem not support their local clubs are lack of publicity, no excitement, poor quality of football on display, the list go on. All these not withstanding, we secretly wish our local teams do well.

WE NEED A PRIVATE LEAGUE RUN BY PROPER SPORTS MARKETERS. NA TO JUS RENT STADIA FROM GOVT TILL PRIVATE ONES CAN BE BUILT OR RUN A SECONDARY SCHOOL OR UNIVERSITY LEAGUE.OTHER SPORTS CAN BE RUN THE SAME WAY

This is really sad. We have no sense of history in this country. How can a club with so much history just be disbanded like that.

Amongst all the traditional clubs in Nigeria, only Enugu rangers and Heatland of Owerri still live up to their name.

Governments should stay out of running clubs even though Shooting Stars once known as WNDC was a government owned club in those days

afam4eva:

This is really sad. We have no sense of history in this country. How can a club with so much history just be disbanded like that.

Amongst all the traditional clubs in Nigeria, only Enugu rangers and Heatland of Owerri still live up to their name.

God bless you joo. Ajumobi must be joking. Does he know how important that club is to Ibadan and the SW as a whole? As despicable as Akala is he never toyed with such a legacy. I repeat he and Dapo Lam must be joking

how can a civilian govt just disband a 3sc because of just less than 2m debt? The commissioner must be joking hope they realise how important this club is to oyo state with less than 2 months to the begining of another league.