Calabar Rovers FC

Our history

Calabar Rovers Football Club

Calabar Rovers Football Club is most time called Rovers Football Club of Calabar and was established to serve as one of the football clubs in Nigeria representing not only the state capital but also the entire state in its football activities which includes matches, championships and tournaments.

The club, which was created in 1977, has played with various other clubs in Nigeria both the professional ones and the fast-rising ones, and has experienced series of defeats, winnings and draw in some of their featured matches, while some are being played in their home stadium (U. J. Esuene Stadium), some were played in their opponent’s home club stadium.

Calabar Rovers FC has provided as well as supplied the country’s national team with some footballers who have shown their skills and professionalism in the aspect of football, and can be able to boost of aspiring young footballers who are also willingly and dedicated to make the club and Nigeria’s national team better as they promised to represent the country more excellently in International games.

With support and good sponsorship, the football club promises to turn better, soar higher and rise above anyone expectations as well as compete with other best African football clubs.

Calabar Rovers Football Club is one of the commonly known football clubs in Nigeria, founded and based in the city of Calabar, the capital city of Cross River State, in the year 1977. The club rose to prominence under a Brazilian coach named Paulo Luiz Campos, who was a recognized football manager in his home country and led the team to promotion in 1981.

It is a branded face of CRS football that was founded with the sole aim of attaining a top ranking in the Nigeria Football League Association.

The team uses U. J. Esuene Stadium as their home ground for their athletic training, competition matches and related other football events taking place within the state. The club was one of the original teams of the Nigerian Second Division when it was established in the year 1979.

Calabar Rovers club wisely implemented a quick pattern in their playing skills, which helped them gain promotion to the top flight in 1981, just two years after the Second Division began. It was recorded that the team was relegated in 1993 without winning a major trophy; their best runs in the Football Association Challenge Cup ended in the national semi-finals.

In their last match of the 2006 season, on the 12th of August 2006, the club lost 13 - 0 to Akwa United after three of their players were sent off. The result caused a scandal, and the club was dissolved and dropped to amateur level.

In 2008, the club was brought back to life by the Cross River State government, with sponsorship from the United Cement Company (UNICEM). They entered the 2008/2009 Nigerian National League under the sponsorship of UNICEM for five seasons of active participation, and during that time the club was known as Unicem Rovers Football Club.

The team also acquired Dankat FC league slot in 2009, and then entered into play and share agreement of 12 million naira with Dankat Football Club of Kano. Owing to this agreement, they played their first season of that year mostly in the northern division.

Calabar Rovers expressed feeling over the accumulated debt of their official’s salaries and allowances of 2015 season as they protested in front of the state governor’s office as the 2016 season had already commenced in February 2016.

There was a remarkable experience for the club on the 12th of June 2016 on their way to honour a national league game at Omoku Rivers State Nigeria against Go Round FC of Omoku. According to Sports Vanguard news Nigeria, the team were attacked by 15-man armed robbery gang. Their chief coach and the driver were handled roughly and they finally absconded with their bags which contained pieces of jewellery, playing kits and expensive items.

Statistics has recorded series of Calabar Rovers FC match involvements for many years, including the results, streaks, lost matches as well as winnings points over other local leagues.

Calabar Rovers Football Club was engaged in series of competitions with Osun United in 2017, which they won in almost all the matches one of them was recorded with a winning score of 2 - 0 where Hillary Chukwu was one of the goal scorers of the day.

They have also been challenged by My People FC Of Lagos and Ikorodu United of Lagos in which they came out as the winner in both competitions.

Calabar Rovers has also defeated Ben Ayade United FC on penalties in May 2017 and became the champion of 2017 State Football Challenge Cup. These, among others, are some of their recorded past matches.

Home ground

U. J. Esuene Stadium

U. J. Esuene Stadium is a 16,000 spectator sitting capacity stadium located at Naval Base, Calabar, Cross Rivers State of Nigeria. The stadium is used for different purposes including football athletics. It is a home stadium for Calabar Rovers Football Club; also well equipped with synthetic grass pitch for all athletic activities.

The football match competition between the newly established Calabar Rovers FC and Bendel Insurance FC of Benin Edo, Nigeria marked the inauguration of the stadium on the 2nd day of April 1977.

An international game that involved Tonnerre Yaoundé of Cameroon and Enugu Rangers Football Club followed up two weeks after at the newly opened stadium after the formal ceremony.

The stadium since then has been hosting series of high profile matches which includes the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup Group C matches that involved Colombia, Netherlands, Iran and Gambia, and Nigeria’s quarter-final win over South Korea. Renovation of the arena has raised the stadium to a higher standard with the start-of-the-art machinery and equipment such as floodlights and an ultra-modern electronic video-matrix scoreboard.