Oyo State Commissioner for Sports Honourable Wasilat Adegoke has declared that Shooting Stars Sports Club’s CAF Confederation Cup qualification was a product of deliberate government investment and collective hard work, not fortune, as the Oluyole Warriors prepare to return to continental football after a 27 year absence.
Wasilat Adegoke has no time for the idea that Shooting Stars stumbled into their CAF ticket. The Oyo State Commissioner for Sports was emphatic in her reaction to the club’s third place finish in the 2025/26 NPFL season, which earned the Oluyole Warriors a place in next season’s CAF Confederation Cup and ended a continental exile stretching back to 1999. “Shooting Stars’ continental ticket did not happen by chance,” she stated. “It is the result of deliberate support from His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde, and the hard work of everyone at the club.”
The commissioner’s declaration carries the weight of someone who watched the investment being made in real time. She pointed directly to Governor Makinde’s administration for the Lekan Salami Stadium upgrade works, the prompt payment of player salaries, the settlement of outstanding allowances, and the logistical support provided throughout the campaign. Those are not small things in Nigerian football, where clubs have historically fallen short of continental ambitions because of administrative and financial disruption rather than a lack of talent on the pitch. Fans who want to follow 3SC’s continental campaign and back them in the CAF group stages can find the latest Bet9ja promo code ahead of the draw.
A 27-Year Wait Finally Over
The scale of this moment for Ibadan football cannot be overstated. Shooting Stars last played in African club competition in the late 1990s, when the club was still trading on the legacy of their 1976 African Cup Winners’ Cup triumph, which made them the first Nigerian club to win an international trophy. Two and a half decades of domestic turbulence, relegations, and financial difficulties followed. Under coach Nurudeen Aweroro and chairman Taiwo Lekan-Salami, the club has rebuilt across two consecutive seasons to reach a point where continental qualification is no longer an aspiration but a reality. The 60 points they accumulated across 38 NPFL matches this season was enough to hold third place despite a narrow 1-0 defeat to Niger Tornadoes on the final day in Minna.
Adegoke gave credit across the full spectrum of those responsible for the turnaround. She praised the club’s management and technical crew for their discipline and professionalism, singled out chairman Taiwo Lekan Salami for his steady leadership throughout the season, and reserved a separate acknowledgement for the supporters whose loyalty across home and away fixtures she described as a critical factor in the club’s push for the continental slot.
She also recalled that Shooting Stars won Nigeria’s first continental club title back in 1976, framing the CAF return as part of a longer narrative of restoring the club to a stage it was built to compete on. New Bet9ja users interested in Nigerian club football’s continental campaigns can claim the current YOHAIG welcome code before the group stage fixtures are confirmed.
The Lekan Salami Renovation Question
One of the more complex threads running through 3SC’s season was the condition of the Lekan Salami Stadium itself. In January 2026, the NPFL declared the facility unfit to host league matches and directed the club to use either the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abeokuta or the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Lagos as an alternative home venue. The poor pitch condition had already forced the NFF to relocate a women’s U-20 World Cup qualifier away from Ibadan earlier in the season. Chairman Lekan-Salami moved quickly to reassure supporters that the club would remain in Ibadan and that steps were being taken with the Oyo State Ministry of Youth and Sports and the State Sports Council to restore the playing surface. The fact that 3SC completed their season and qualified for the CAF Confederation Cup despite that disruption says something about the resilience of everyone involved.
The commissioner’s pledge that the ministry will continue to work with the club’s management ahead of their continental campaign is also, implicitly, a commitment to ensuring the stadium question is resolved before 3SC need to host CAF matches. A venue that cannot meet NPFL standards would not pass CAF’s technical inspection requirements either. The renovation work Adegoke referenced must deliver a facility fit for African football if Ibadan is to see continental nights again at the Lekan Salami Stadium. NPFL fans following all three of Nigeria’s CAF representatives next season can track the continental markets through the NPFL and Super9ja predictions guide as the group stage draw approaches.
Aweroro’s Role and What Comes Next
Coach Nurudeen Aweroro arrived at Shooting Stars before the 2025/26 season and delivered a third place finish at the end of his first full campaign, having steadied the club to fourth place in his debut season. Back to back top four finishes and a CAF ticket at the end of the second is the kind of progression that attracts attention from bigger clubs. For now, the focus will be on preparing for the Confederation Cup and ensuring the squad is ready for the demands of travelling across the continent while maintaining domestic form. Adegoke’s message is that the state government and the club will face that challenge together, just as they faced the season that brought the ticket.
📌 Did You Know?
- Shooting Stars Sports Club won the African Cup Winners’ Cup in 1976, defeating Nakivubo Villa of Uganda 3-0 in the final at the Lekan Salami Stadium in Ibadan. It was the first time a Nigerian club had won an international football trophy, a landmark that defined the club’s continental identity for decades.
- The Lekan Salami Stadium in Ibadan, Shooting Stars’ home ground, is named after the family of the club’s current chairman, Taiwo Lekan Salami. The generational connection between the stadium’s original benefactor and the chairman who has funded the club’s current resurgence creates an unusual thread of continuity in the club’s identity.
- Shooting Stars finished the 2025/26 NPFL season with 60 points from 38 matches in third place, one behind Rivers United and nine behind champions Rangers International FC of Enugu. The points tally was enough to secure the CAF Confederation Cup spot even after a 1-0 defeat to Niger Tornadoes on the final day of the season in Minna.
- The CAF Confederation Cup, which 3SC will enter in 2026/27, was restructured by the Confederation of African Football in 2021 and operates as Africa’s second-tier club competition, equivalent in structure to the UEFA Europa League. Nigerian clubs have had a mixed record in the competition since its formation, with some reaching the group stages but few progressing deep into the knockout rounds.
- Nurudeen Aweroro, the Shooting Stars head coach who guided the club to their continental qualification, previously worked at Ikorodu City before taking the 3SC job. His back to back top four finishes with the Oluyole Warriors have positioned him as one of the more impressive emerging coaches in Nigerian football’s current coaching landscape.
- Rivers United, who finished second in the NPFL and also qualified for the CAF Champions League, are based in Port Harcourt. Their continental ticket, alongside those of Rangers International (first) and Shooting Stars (third), means all three of Nigeria’s CAF representatives in 2026/27 come from clubs that have been actively investing in their football operations rather than relying on administrative legacy.
- Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, whose administration received specific credit from Commissioner Adegoke for enabling 3SC’s qualification, has been a visible supporter of sports development in the state since taking office. His interventions at the Lekan Salami Stadium and the backing provided to the club’s operational budget were cited as foundational to the club’s competitive recovery across the last two seasons.
