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After AWCON victory, NFF wants to make Falcons world champions

By Alex Monye
06 December 2016   |   4:16 am
The Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) Technical Committee has revealed its plans to set up programmes that would develop the senior women national team ...
Nigerian Football Federation President, Amaju Pinnick; Chairman, Senate Committee on Sports, Obinna Ogba; Chief Executive Officer, Emzor Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Stella Okoli; Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung; Super Falcons’ Captain, Rita Chikwelu; and the team’s top striker, Asisat Oshoala, who is also an Emzor Ambassador, at a reception in honour of the country’s victorious women team at the just concluded African Women Cup of Nations… at the weekend.

Nigerian Football Federation President, Amaju Pinnick; Chairman, Senate Committee on Sports, Obinna Ogba; Chief Executive Officer, Emzor Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Stella Okoli; Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung; Super Falcons’ Captain, Rita Chikwelu; and the team’s top striker, Asisat Oshoala, who is also an Emzor Ambassador, at a reception in honour of the country’s victorious women team at the just concluded African Women Cup of Nations… at the weekend.

The Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) Technical Committee has revealed its plans to set up programmes that would develop the senior women national team such that they would start competing favourably against the best sides in the world.

The Super Falcons, who just won the African Women Nations Cup for the eighth time, always falter when they get to the global stage.

The team has been to every Women World Cup since 1991, but has only gotten to the quarterfinal once. Recently, the team lost their dominance of the African game, failing twice in 2012 and 2016 to qualify for the Olympic Games.

Speaking with the Guardian yesterday, an NFF Technical Committee member, Christian Chukwu, said the committee would soon meet with the Super Falcons’ coach, Florence Omagbemi, to go through her programmes for future international engagements, adding that they would ensure the team had a clear path to success at the world level.

Chukwu, who praised the Super Falcons for coming out victorious at the African tournament, declared that the ability of the Nigerian girls to retain the AWCON trophy and the Super Eagles’ victory over Zambia and Algeria in the 2018 World Cup qualifying series, was a reflection that the country is still a force in Africa football.

The former Super Eagles Coach urged the Falcons to continue working hard to raise their game even at their club level, adding that exceling at any FIFA organized championship in future would boost the image of the country internationally.

He also revealed that the NFF was working round the clock to ensure more corporate bodies keyed into the federation’s programmes, especially in sponsoring the women league, saying that is the only way the country would discover and groom more talents from the grassroots level.

‘’The NFF Technical Committee is going to build on the recent success of the Falcons by working closely with the coach of the team, Florence Omagbemi and the players.

“The Technical Committee is delighted that the Super Falcons are current champions of Africa. Our focus is to keep encouraging the players to be at their best to contend favourably at the international scene. Omagbemi would be given all she needs to achieve this feat,’’ he said.

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