• Fans call for Omagbemi’s return 

The Super Falcons should be ready for another tough hurdle in the race to the 2028 Olympic Games when they face free-scoring Comoros, which dismantled Sudan 30-0 to book their passage to the second round.

The Super Falcons crashed out of the 2027 FIFA World Cup after losing to South Africa 2-1 in the African playoff in Morocco a few weeks ago.

The Nigerians lost their African Women’s Nations Cup (AWCON) title 1-0 to Cameroon in the quarterfinal at the same competition in Morocco. That was a few days after losing their opening game of the competition 3-2 to Malawi.

The dust raised by the failure is yet to settle down as millions of football-loving Nigerians are mounting pressure on the Ibrahim Gusau-led NFF to quit his role as the country’s football boss.

The Super Falcons, alongside African heavyweights, Banyana Banyana of South Africa and Black Queens of Ghana, received a bye into the second round as some of the continent’s top-ranked teams.

On their part, Comoros secured their place in the second phase in emphatic fashion, dismantling Sudan 30-0 on aggregate. They recorded a 17-0 victory in the first leg before completing the rout with a 13-0 win in the return fixture.

The Super Falcons will face an uphill task in their first match in the 2028 Olympic qualification against Comoros in October, in what many fans see as a potentially demanding qualification campaign.
It is the second round of the African qualifiers, and the two-legged tie is scheduled to be held between October 5 and 13, 2026.

The Super Falcons will enter the tie as overwhelming favourites, but considering the poor state of the country’s national teams in recent times, and the knockout nature of the qualification process, Comoros should not be written off.

The October fixtures will represent Nigeria’s first competitive hurdle on the road to Los Angeles.

The Super Falcons returned to the Olympics at Paris 2024, ending a 16-year absence from the Games. They will now seek consecutive Olympic appearances for the first time since qualifying for Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 editions.

A successful outcome against Comoros would send the Super Falcons into the third round, where they are scheduled to face either Morocco or Congo.

Those fixtures are expected to be played between February 23 and March 6, 2027.

A meeting with Morocco could provide a particularly stern test, as the Atlas Lionesses have established themselves among Africa’s leading women’s teams in recent years.

Congo would also represent a potentially tricky opponent.

Should the Super Falcons overcome their third-round opponents, another challenge awaits in the fourth round, scheduled for October 4 to 12, 2027.

Nigeria’s potential opponents at that stage will emerge from a group featuring Tunisia, Senegal, Benin Republic and Mali.

The demanding format means the Super Falcons would have to maintain a high level of consistency throughout a qualification campaign spanning more than a year.

Meanwhile, some Nigerian fans are demanding the return of former Coach Florence Omagbemi to lead the Super Falcons in line with the popular trend of engaging women coaches to lead women’s teams.

Omagbemi led the Super Falcons to win their 8th AWCON title in 2016, beating Cameroon 1-0 in a tense final watched by President Paul Biya in Yaounde. She is the first and only African to win the title as a player and as a coach.