Rangers International Football Club of Enugu have won the 2023/24 Nigeria Premier League after chalking up a total of 70 points from 38 matches.
The Flying Antelopes of Enugu capped their victory with a decisive 2-1 away win over Gombe United at the new Jos Township Stadium.
But their victory had actually been secured before the final match. As the team matched into the stadium to play against Gombe United, the home side, which was already relegation bound gave them a guard of honour.
Within seven minutes, the Enugu Rangers scored two goals through Kazeem Ogunleye and Godwin Obaje. But Anas Hassan scored one for Gombe to bring the scores to 2-1. With the victory, Rangers chalked up 70 points to stay five points clear of their closest rivals, Remo Stars of Ijebu-Ode.
At Ikenne, Remo Stars also won their match, beat Katsina United by 2-1 to place second and seal their ticket to play in the African Champions League for the third time. Remo’s goals were scored by new Super Eagles call-up, Sodiq Ismail and Dayo Ojo.
Former Premier League champions, Enyimba FC of Aba, came third after beating Plateau United 2-0 in Aba with goals from Chijioke Mbaoma and Alade Balogun in the last 12 minutes of the game. Enyimba qualified for the CAF Confederation Cup with their performance. Shooting Stars FC of Ibadan came fourth after they beat visiting Sporting Lagos FC in Ibadan 1-0.
At the end of the league season, Mbaoma of Enyimba won the Golden Boot with 17 goals to his credit. With that, he will also take home the sum of N3.4 million. Sponsors of the league, Eunisell paid N200,000 for each goal scored. Sikiru Alimi of Remo Stars won the second highest scorer award with 15 goals.
Bendel Insurance keeper, Amas Obasogie kept 18 clean sheets and won the best goalkeeper award. Kayode Bankole of Remo Stars came second with 15 clean sheets as well as Kingdom Osayi of Doma United. Bendel United who fought hard last season for the league title, came ninth this year with 53 points.
Former League champions, Bayelsa United FC and Akwa United barely escaped relegation on the final day. Bayelsa defeated Bendel Insurance 2-0 to climb to 15th position, while Akwa United beat Rivers United 3-1 at Uyo to end the season at 16th position.
Sporting Lagos FC, which was playing in the Premiership for the first time returned to the Nigerian National League on relegation after their 0-1 loss to Shooting Stars of Ibadan. If they had won, their retention in the premier league would have been secured.
Sporting’s coach from the start of the league, Paul Offor was fired after eight games. But Abdullah Biffo, who succeeded him could not do much to improve their fortunes. They ended up 17th on the table.
Even though Doma played impressively in the first half of the season, placing third at halftime, they could not hold it up in the second half and they were eventually relegated to the NNL, after playing a 1-1 draw against Abia warriors at home in the final match.
The other two teams relegated were Heartland of Owerri FC and Gombe United. The two sides had shown formidability in past seasons, with Heartland winning several league titles.
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