MFM FC
As Expected, Lagos fans are once again witnessing their most cherished continental football made possible by Lagos-based MFM FC after about 21 years.
The Olukoya Boys, debutants in the CAF Champions League, began their campaign to win the continent’s coveted soccer shield when they squared up against AS Real Bamako in the first round of the money-spinning tournament with prize money of 2.5 million dollars on Feb. 21.
They won the second leg of the first round 1-0 at the newly refurbished Soccer Temple, Agege Stadium. MFM had drawn 1-1 with their counterparts in Bamako in the first leg and secured a birth in the second on a 2-1 aggregate.
The Fidelis Ilechukwu-tutored team, just in their third season in the elite division of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) was able to ignite the fond memories of continental football in Lagos which has been elusive for about 21 years.
The metropolitan city of Lagos last enjoyed continental championships in 1997 when Julius Berger FC was knocked out in the then CAF Cup Winners Cup, now Confederation Cup in the second round.
Perhaps the most exciting moment was when the Bridge Boys were finalist at the same competition in 1995 but lost to JS Kayblie of Algeria.
On the timeline of the event that led the Julius Berger losing to the Algerian side, the Lagos-based team played a dramatic 1-1 draw in front of the roaring football fanatics at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
The team, however, narrowly lost to the Algerian club 2-1 at the Stade 5 Juilet in Algeria in the return leg of the final, leaving them to win 3-2 on aggregate.
Back to the memory lane, Julius Berger had Stationery Stores of Lagos to contend with fighting for the hearts of Lagosians as the traditional club of Lagos after the demise of earlier NEPA FC.
Both teams are bitter rivals during local derby and it was always explosive matches playing at their respective traditional grounds.
However, the Stationery Stores nicknamed “Flaming Flamingoes’’ by their fans have had their own beautiful moments in the continental championships, while one cannot easily forget their exploits in the continental football competitions, especially in the 1980s.
The Adebajo Boys in 1981 at the finals of the Africa Cup Winners Cup played in front of the boisterous Lagos fans at their fortress, Onikan Stadium against Union Doula of Cameroun which ended goalless.
The Flaming Flamingoes, however, lost the return leg 1-2 away in Doula, Cameroun. It then took the team 12 years to return to the competition’s knockout stage in the semi-finals of the same Cup.
The Stationery Stores yet again qualified for the semi-finals of the Africa Cup Winners Cup against Zamalek of Egypt, winning the first leg 1-0 at Onikan Stadium.
The team then succumbed to the superior firepower of the North African powerhouse in Egypt as they were spanked 3-1 which foreclosed their campaign in the continental football for some time now.
For MFM FC, it is the dawn of a new era for the team to start from where their predecessor stopped.
The team now has a big task ahead in satisfying the continental football starved fans of the metropolitan city of Lagos.
For a team that is presently riding on the crest of good support from fans right from their burst into the limelight of NPFL, much is expected of them.
The team did not disappoint as within three years of campaign in NPFL, they could secure a continental ticket.
MFM FC continental ticket came with no easy passage as in 2016/2017 NPFL season, the Ilechukwu-tutored team had to battle a relegation scare; a fate that also befell the other Lagos-based team, Ikorodu United in the previous season.
A modest club, MFM FC after the 2015/2016 NPFL debacle had to pick up their pieces for an inspirational second place finish in the 2016/2017 season to the astonishment of many.
The team had to force the eventual winner Plateau United to the wire before they were eventually crowned.
Suffice it to say that se