Lobi Stars targets 2026/2027 NNL for promotion ticket to NPFL

Posted : 09 April 2026

After failing to get the promotion ticket back to the elite league, the Chairman of Lobi Stars Football Club of Makurdi, Simon Ikya, says the club’s sole target now is to gain promotion to the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) for the 2026/2027 season.

Ikya stated this while addressing newsmen regarding the club’s progress during the just-concluded Nigerian National League (NNL) season.

Recall that Ikya took over the reins of the club mid-season.

He said that the team did their best but narrowly missed out on returning to the NPFL, as the club finished second in NNL Conference C behind Doma United of Gombe.

The chairman said that many challenges, including playing home matches away from Makurdi, an over-bloated squad, and legal issues, among others, scuttled the team’s efforts to achieve its goal.

“But when the governor gave me the go-ahead to do everything humanly possible to bring the team back to Makurdi, we are now playing our home matches at McCarthy Stadium, Makurdi.

“Playing away from home meant we were basically playing all our games away, and it was costing us too much money.

“Then we worked on adding a bit of bite to the team, which we did. And if you noticed, in the second round we played much better than we did in the first round.

“Another challenge was the number of players. We had 67 of them, which is too much, but what I did was review the squad, select 25 players to form Team A, and move the rest to Team B.

“That helped us improve towards the end, and we were even able to win an away game, which was our last,” he explained.

Ikya said that the wage bill was taking a toll on the team and assured that all the players whose contracts expired would be shown the exit door.

“We finished second, which wasn’t our target. As mentioned, we will sit down to address all these issues.

“I didn’t handle recruitment, and I didn’t come in on time. But next season, I won’t have any excuses. Our target will be promotion, and we must get the right players to achieve it.

“The truth is that the governor has been very supportive. I even feel ashamed of going before him sometimes. But given the circumstances we found ourselves in, there was little we could have done.

“Now that we have the opportunity to recruit our own players and properly prepare the team, I don’t think we have any excuse not to gain promotion next season.

“Regarding some of the cases we inherited, we had to include them in the wage bill because we are part of the system,” he added.

The management remains confident that with a streamlined squad and the advantage of playing at home in Makurdi, the club is well-positioned for success. By addressing the recruitment and financial hurdles faced this season, Lobi Stars aim to reward the governor's support with a return to the top flight.

Lobi Stars targets 2026/2027 NNL for promotion ticket to NPFL

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