How Kunle Soname is redefining Nigeria’s football club management

…as Remo Stars lifts NPFL trophy for the first time in history

The news is not that Remo Stars have secured their maiden Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) crown by defeating Niger Tornadoes 1-0 on Sunday, April 27, but that the club has tweaked club management, charting their history.

Kunle Soname, founder of Remo Starts has redefined football club management through commitment in grassroots football, exemplified by the construction of the state-of-the-art stadium in Ikenne, providing a vital foundation for the growth of sports in Nigeria.

With a heart firmly set on developing football from the grassroots, Soname founded Remo Stars in 2004 under the name FC Dender, and have steadily nurtured the club to not only climb the ranks of Nigerian football over the past two decades, but be crowned the country’s elite clubs champions.

One of the things clogging sports development, and business in Nigeria is lack of intentional action given to developing sports, either by entrepreneurs or the government.

The chairman of Remo Stars by his action has changed the narratives and set the pace how football clubs should be managed with proper planning and deliberate actions.

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Emmanuel Amuneke, the technical manager of Heartland FC, speaking on the feat achieved by Remo Stars who won the 2025 NPFL with 68 points after 35 matches, having recorded 21 wins, five draws, and nine losses, and hold a 10-point lead over its closest rivalry, Rivers United, said that Remo Stars have shown that with proper planning and deliberate action, privately owned clubs can excel in NPFL.

Amuneke emphasised that the feat of Kunle Soname and Remo Stars is a challenge to privately owned clubs that they can also excel with proper planning and deliberate actions.

Similarly, Mozez Praiz, television host/sportscaster at Supersport revealed during a sports conference that Nigerian clubs can maximise the business aspect of sports, pointing out the problem with most sports clubs is lack of knowledge about the business of sports.

“Club chairmanship is given as a political compensation as against professionalism. Most of the club administrators don’t have blueprints on how to grow the clubs,” he said.

Praiz explained that to grow a club, the ideal thing is to start with building the fan base, and that to achieve this, there is a need to give the fans a sense of ownership.

“Until we fix the disconnect between the club managers and the fans, we will continue to struggle. Club managers should take seriously how they brand their persons,” he said.

The Ogun State-born businessman is unarguably the biggest private investor in Nigeria’s football club management space today; Soname built his fans base through the formation of a privately owned league, ‘The Creative Championship’ for youth in Lagos and Ogun States.

Besides, he ensured that Remo Stars own a table tennis team, which is the first table- tennis team owned by a football club in Nigeria.

The visionary football club administrator, established Beyond Limits Football Club as a window to growing the Remo Stars brand and prepare players for the move to CD Feirense, his Portuguese club.

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To expand his fan base, Soname also ventured into sports betting by establishing bet9ja, which has drawn many followers to the club.

Remo Stars now turn their attention to preparations for continental football, as they are set to represent Nigeria in next season’s TotalEnergies CAF Champions League.

No doubt, Nigeria with a population of over 220 million people, including a youthful demographic, is primed to become a leading sports hub in Africa; especially with the emergence of Remo Stars as NPFL champions, probably, the country will lift the coveted TotalEnergies CAF Champions League cup once again.

The success story of Soname and Remo Stars has truly shown that the government and stakeholders have to rethink sports investment and administration to optimise the economic benefits.

According to Emeka Enyadike, director at Digital Sports, Africa, “Nigeria needs to create a more viable sports ecosystem amidst abundance of talents and put in place infrastructure, commercialisation and human capacity development, for talents to be discovered.”