Despite challenges faced by the Nigerian female football team, the Super Falcons retained first spot in Africa and 38th position in the world in the latest FIFA rankings. The latest ranking is a result of the team’s performance over the past year, during which it got to the second round of the 2019 Women’s World Cup.

“After the World Cup, the team has been facing challenges of players’ unpaid allowances, the foreign coach resigning out of frustration and the Falcons not getting the 2020 Olympics ticket,” said Former Super Eagles Assistant Coach, Joe Erico. “Up till this moment, the team has not gotten a substantive coach. From my own point, I think the foreign coach, Thomas Dennerby, did a good job with the girls during his tenure with the team.”

Last December, the African champions claimed 39th position on the global ranking, as a result of the country’s inactivity since bowing out of the Olympic Games qualifier in October. The team missed out on a return to the showpiece event for a third consecutive time, losing its place to West African rivals Cote d’Ivoire on away goal rule.

Over the years, the women’s team has dominated African football, a feat widely believed to be down to their commitment and hunger for personal and national success, which has earned most of the players lucrative contracts overseas. 

While Nigeria retained the top spot in the standings in Africa, Cameroon maintained second place despite dropping two places to 51st globally following a shock loss to Zambia earlier in March. 

According to Erico, the Super Falcons retaining the number one spot in Africa and a commendable position in the world is impressive, but if things are not put right from this point, Nigeria might be witnessing the last era of the Super Falcons dominance.

In this regard, the former assistant coach advised the Nigeria Football Federation to look for ways to help the Super Falcons maintain their position as the best women national team in Africa. “For the future of the Falcons to be bright, the NFF should… look at the positive and negative sides of the past progress of the team in a bid to create a framework that would enable the women national team not only to dominate Africa but also excel at world competitions in the nearest future,” he said.

Speaking on the actions to be taken, he charged the NFF to investigate the reasons why the foreign trainer left so that they can correct the deficiency in the team before a news coach takes over. 

He then urged the federation to consider the team by finding a way of strengthening the local women’s league and other competitions, saying such moves would help coaches to produce quality teams.

Erico warned that the era of the Nigerian women national team dominating the continent might end if urgent measures were not taken to get a credible coach for the team and also put modalities in place to ensure the welfare of the players was attractive.

By Ahmed Iyanda.

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