Bendel Insurance Football Club History
Bendel Insurance Football Club is one of Nigeria’s professional football clubs which was birthed in the year 1972 and is indigenous to Edo State but currently based in the state’s capital which is Benin City. In the same year of Bendel Insurance Football Club establishment, the club also joined hands in the creation of the Nigerian Premier League.
The football club is also popular with the name Insurance of Benin Football club, and has during the course of its existence changed their names, initially; the football club’s name was Vipers of Benin but later changed their name to Insurance of Benin Football club and Bendel Insurance Football Club.
The football club’s home stadium is Samuel Ogbemudia stadium which is also located in the capital city and is the club's main training ground as well as where they play their home-based matches and tournaments and has the capacity of 20,000 people.
The club has made several appearances in Nigeria top leagues and has also performed well, in the year, 1979, the club made it to the semifinals of the CAF Cup Winners' Cup and made their second appearance in the year 1982 but were knocked out in the second round.
Their other achievements include featuring in Nigeria Premier League in the year 1973 and 1979, in 1972 just a few months after the club was created, they participated in 1972 Nigerian FA Cup and also in 1978 and 1980.
The football club has also participated in CAF Cup in the year 1994 and has also featured in West African Club Championship (UFOA Cup) three times in the year 1993 and the subsequent years which is 1994 and 1995.
In 1974, they reached the second round of African Cup of Champions and later again in 1980 participated in the same league where they were knocked out at semi-finals.
The club has played in many local, national and African tournaments which also include CAF Confederation Cup where they reached the second round in the year 2005 and a former appearance in CAF Cup where they emerged as the Champion in the year 1994.
The club which has gained facelift in the area of football games in Nigeria started facing some challenges during their 2007- 2008 season which did not only cause a delay in that year’s season league but also they finished in the last place which led to the club being relegated straight from the top level, and this was recorded in the history of Nigeria’s Professional Football League as the first time a football club has been demoted straight from the top level.
The reason behind this came to limelight as it was attributed to the dispute which arose as a result of who will manage or take over the club and this even led to claims of who has the name insurance from the two other football clubs.
Because of the confusion in the name, the crisis over who takes control of the team was amicably settled in August 2008 as the state government of Edo took ownership of the club, and which led to the current name Bendel Insurance Football Club.
In February 2009, Bendel Insurance Football Club was temporarily banned from using their stadium because it was not up to league standards.
On the 11th of December 2017, the football club planned ahead on recruiting additional football players at least 10 in preparation of the 2017/2018 National League season, and on the 28th of February, 2018 the club was rebranded by the state Governor Godwin Obaseki launching its new logo, technical team, jerseys, bus and others.
It was made known that the reason the club’s new logo has the symbol of the late Queen Idiia is that the queen was a well-known warrior who has won many battles.
