Duke Udi says a bigger, more competitive NNL would help unearth the kind of talent that built Nigerian football’s golden generations, as he pushes to finally get Sunshine Stars back into the top flight.
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Sunshine Stars Technical Adviser Duke Udi has voiced his support for a proposed 20-team format for both the Northern and Southern Conferences of the Nigeria National League in the 2026/27 season.
A Bigger, More Competitive League
Udi, a former Nigeria international who also played for Shooting Stars and Enyimba, told Complete Sports that if the NNL Board ratifies the proposal at its Annual General Meeting in Owerri this weekend, each conference would expand to 20 teams and 38 rounds of matches, with two clubs promoted from each. He said the change would be a welcome development, making the competition more interesting and more competitive.
The 50 year old, who had playing spells in Europe with Grasshoppers of Switzerland, Slovan Bratislava and Hapoel Ironi Rishon, said a straight league format would help bring out the best in the second-tier of Nigerian football. He added a caveat, though, stressing that the media needs to play a positive role in covering the league the way it did in the 1970s through the 2000s, an era that helped produce stars like Austin Okocha, Segun Odegbami, Adokiye Amiesimaka, Rashidi Yekini, Finidi George and Nwankwo Kanu.
Full State Backing For Sunshine Stars
Udi also gave an update on Sunshine Stars’ own promotion push, revealing that the Akure-based club currently has the full backing of the Ondo State Government. He said club chairman and Ondo State Football Agency head Divine Ogbonnaya has not missed a single training session and remains the only chairman to have paid the squad’s salaries in full since the end of last season. Speaking from the Gold Cup Preseason Tournament in Abeokuta, Udi said the only outstanding request was a better travel bus, which Ogbonnaya has promised to raise with Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa before the new season begins.
Now in his third spell at the club, Udi said he believes conditions are right for Sunshine Stars to finally return to the NPFL this season, with the team intensifying preparations through their ongoing pre-season tournament.
📌 Did You Know?
- Udi represented Nigeria at senior international level during a playing career that also took him across Switzerland, Slovakia and Israel.
- Sunshine Stars won the NPFL title in 2011/12, one of the more notable achievements in the Akure club’s history, before later dropping out of the top flight.
- The players Udi cited as products of a strong domestic league era, including Jay-Jay Okocha, Rashidi Yekini and Nwankwo Kanu, all went on to become key figures in Nigeria’s most successful Super Eagles generations.
- A proposed 20-team, two-conference NNL format would represent one of the most significant structural changes to Nigeria’s second tier football pyramid in recent years.
- This is Udi’s third spell in charge at Sunshine Stars, giving him a long running familiarity with the club’s promotion ambitions.
