We’ll accept underdogs tag – Glo Premier League

The Chairman of Lagos-based MFM FC, Godwin Enakhena, says the club will accept the tag, “underdogs’’ in their debut at the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) beginning on Feb. 21.

Enakhena told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos that entering the Glo Premier League as underdogs would be of advantage to his team.

NAN reports that the MFM FC is owned by the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries under Pastor D.K. Olukoya, its General Overseer.

Olukoya, known to be an ardent lover of sports, has established many sporting clubs, including the MFM FC that recently gained promotion to premier league for 2016/2017 season.

MFM journey into the premier league started in 2013 after the club bought the slot from Bolowotan FC in the lower league.
However, on Aug. 31, 2015, it secured a ticket to the NPFL after emerging champions of the lower league.

On what to expect from the faith-based club in their campaign at Nigeria’s elite division, Enakhena said that they had the requisite conditions for a favourable outing.

“When teams are tagged underdogs, it means they are at advantage, which means they are not under any pressure to win because people will say after all they are underdogs.

“It is just an advantage, for example, Leicester City FC in the Barclays Premier League in England is enjoying that because they are supposedly underdogs, but look at what they are doing now.

“The tag underdogs, why not? We will accept it. We will approach matches where we are not going to be underdogs in our mindset.

“We are not scared of any team, it is a match of 11 players versus 11 players,’’ he said.

Enakhena said that the team had the target of being at the top in the league, a feat, he noted, would be achievable owing to the team’s preparation.

“Our target in the premier league is to finish among the top 10, and then play good football; we want to play football without violence and these are the key areas.

“At the end, we want the players to look back and say thank God, if not for MFM we won’t be where we are today.

“Our real target is to stay in the league and give opportunities to Nigerian footballers and also give future to the players. That is our target,’’ he said.

Enakhena said that the MFM had all it takes to compete shoulder to shoulder with the established team in the premiership given their pre-season preparation.

“Playing in the premier league is something we have put into consideration a long time ago and that is why we have ensured that we played enough friendly matches.

“We have played Enyimba FC of Aba, Ifeanyi Uba FC of Nnewi and also went to Ibadan on pre-season tour and played Sunshine Stars of Akure; all these teams could not beat us.

“We also played Giwa FC, we beat them, we played Abia Warriors and they could not beat us, these are the teams we are playing in the premier league.

“Although they are friendly games, but that sends a message. Such games are as good as competitive match, they give a psychological edge that we are playing the teams later,’’ he said.

On beefing up of the team for the campaign, Enakhena said that the team only needed some fortifications in few areas which had been addressed.

“There is no perfect team anywhere, you always have areas you need to block, MFM is not different. The few areas we need to shore up, we are already doing that.

“We have two areas to deal with. But in the NPL it is from Week 9, that you can fortify your team if the need arises, we don’t have a problem with that.

“We have a team that can compete favourably now, but if we get better players we will go for them.

“We don’t have all the money, but I can always say we have enough money to pay our players’ salaries and fulfill promises made to players.

Enakhena added: “We are not going to pay outrageous salary to anybody and not pay below the minimum wage for the Nigerian players. We have been doing that for years now.

“We are a church not conventional football supporters or sponsors. People should watch out for the team and not just a player.

“MFM has produced quality players, a lot of them playing for the national teams, so, they are already exposed,’’ he said.

Enakhena disclosed that the team’s base is Agege Stadium and that they would host their first home game in the stadium on Feb. 28.

“Agege Stadium is registered; we considered the area and the ticketing. We proposed the minimum gate-taking of N500.

“It may not be only fans from only Agege because it is a Lagos-based team; some people may come from as far as Ogun to watch our matches.

“We are going to have different types of ticketing that will be affordable to everybody; we will have between N500 and N2, 500, the minimum will be N500,’’ he said.