Nigeria’s national women football team, Super Falcons, early this week, in a grueling 120-minute semi-final encounter in the ongoing 12th Women Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) that ended in a penalty shootout, lost gallantly to the host nation Morocco. With it ended their ambition to win the championship trophy for the 10th time.
The team had been champions in nine of the 12 editions.
The team is also the only women’s national team from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to have reached the quarterfinals in both the FIFA Women’s World Cup and Football Event at the Summer Olympics. They are also one of the few teams in the world to have qualified for every edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Despite playing the semifinal match with nine players against host Morocco’s 11 players throughout the second half and the 30- minute extra time, the Super Falcons took the tension- soaked match to penalties, which they narrowly lost by five goals to four.
Their resilience, character, doggedness, commitment, fighting spirit and management of the game have continued to elicit commendations from across the continent of Africa and beyond. President Muhammadu Buhari, in particular, commended their fighting spirit and added that he was encouraged by the doggedness, resilience and professionalism displayed by the girls who, despite the dismissal of two of their key players, Halimat Ayinde and Rasheedat Ajibade, before a home crowd showed their quality and class.
This newspaper joins millions of Nigerians to salute the gallant Super Falcons for putting up a brave fight against the sleek Moroccan ladies. The girls gave their all and were truly fabulous, refusing to give up. Penalties are forever a lottery, so it could have gone either way. So, we commend the team for the outing and they remain our champions.
As we commend the girls for making the country proud under very difficult circumstances, we will not fail to point out that age is beginning to tell on some of the stars in the team. We consider it appropriate for their handlers to infuse new blood into the team that has continued to dominate female football in the continent.
It is heartwarming that even with the pain of losing in Morocco, a member of the team, Asisat Oshoala, was voted, for the fifth time, as the best female footballer in Africa at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) awards. It is, indeed, a testimony to the enviable standard of female football in the country. Oshoala herself said this much at the awards ceremony recently.
However, it is disheartening that the nine-time African champions who were supposed to be preparing for the third-place match against Zambia, refused to train as scheduled, demanding immediate payment of their allowances and winning bonuses running into millions of naira.
This newspaper reliably gathered that the team was only paid part of their camp allowances, while their WAFCON qualifying bonuses and tournament allowances were yet to be paid, which forced the girls into snubbing training, insisting they were paid before returning to the pitch.
We are delighted by reports that indicate that the President has given his approval for the intervention fund requested by the Sports Ministry for the payment of their allowances and the Ministry is processing to release the funds. Regardless, we consider it regrettable that the team managers waited for a showdown with the players before making arrangements to do the needful. Such lackadaisical attitude on the part of the authorities has remained the bane of sports generally in the country.
This is not the first time the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will be subjecting the Super Falcons to much pain over unfulfilled promises. After the Cameroun 2016 edition of the competition, the girls refused to surrender the trophy they won by beating the hosts because the NFF did not settle their allowances as agreed.
It took the Intervention of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo for the girls to be paid. But the NFF reacted by sacking then team coach, Florence Omagbemi, who they accused of instigating the girls to embark on the strike.
Also, at the France 2019 World Cup, the girls refused to leave their rooms following the NFF’s failure to settle their allowances. The Federation, again, reacted by stripping Desire Oparanozie of the captaincy of the team, claiming she led the protest against the body.
Nigerian teams have frequently been affected by pay disputes, with coaches regularly going unpaid and players boycotting training during qualifiers or at tournaments over outstanding bonuses and thereby embarrassing the country before the international community.
Super Falcons, it must be noted, despite their dominance of African women football, have been unable to reproduce the feat beyond the continent in such arenas as the FIFA Women’s World Cup or the Olympic Games. The team has been to every World Cup since 1991, but managed to finish once in the top eight.
Therefore, we urge football handlers to put all hands on deck to ensure that the team conquers the world this time round at the FIFA Women’s World Cup slated for next year in New Zealand and Australia.
Meanwhile, we commend them for a glorious outing against Morocco.
