The chairman of Bendel Insurance Football Club Jarrett Tenebe has expressed high confidence that the Benin Arsenals are primed to challenge for and win the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) title in the 2026/27 season.
The Benin Arsenals boss disclosed the ambition of the club in an interview with journalists ahead of Edo Queens match against Asec Mimosas in Burkina Faso on Wednesday.
Tenebe said that he has confidence in the ability of the current team of Bendel Insurance FC to win the premier league title in 2027.
Insurance FC have their first match of the new season coming up on Sunday, August 30 against Warri Wolves. The match is scheduled to kick off at 4pm at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin.
According to the chairman,the Benin-based club is targeting its third top-flight league trophy, aiming to end a domestic title drought, stretching back to 1979.
Insurance FC achieved back-to-back 5th-place finishes in the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons. The management believes recent recruitment and player incentives will elevate them to the top spot.
The Benin based premier league club have only won the league title twice -1973 and 1979.
Chairman Tenebe highlighted that tying direct monetary bonuses to goals scored turned around the team’s fortunes last season, addressing scoring struggles and pushing them into upper-table contention.
” When I joined Bendel Insurance FC last year as chairman of the club, they were at the bottom of the table and I met with the players and officials and told them to wake up. I saw that they were having goal scoring problems. The first thing I did was to tie certain amount of money to a goal scored. Each goal actually attracted reasonable amount of money and that changed everything. We started getting the goals and I didn’t miss redeeming my pledges. I’m happy the strategy worked for us and we almost secured a place on the continent.
I have the confidence that we are going to get it right this time with the preparations we have made.” He stressed.
