Omagbemi: On Making African Women Football More Competitive

FOR 16 years, former Super Falcons captain, Florence Omagbemi, was one of the amazons shouldering Nigeria’s quest for glory at the FIFA Women’s World Cup. From the inaugural edition of the championship in China ’91, to Sweden ’95, USA ’99 and USA 2003, Omagbemi was in the forefront, providing cover for the Super Falcons against oppositions.

But her best was not good enough, as the team could not secure passage to the semifinal of the competition, not to talk of featuring in the final.

The best effort by Omagbemi and her ‘golden’ generation of the Super Falcons was reaching the second round at USA ’99, where Nigeria narrowly lost the semifinal ticket to Brazil.

That quarterfinal match at the Jack Kent Cook Stadium in Washington DC, went into FIFA’s record books as one of the most entertaining games ever played in the history of Women’s World Cup.

It was full of drama, as the Falcons conceded three quick goals in the first half, only to cage the Brazilians to their own half in the second stanza to equalize 3-3. It went into extra time and the Falcons lost, after goalkeeper Judith Chime miscalculated a free kick taken by the Brazilian danger woman, Sissi

Since then, the Super Falcons and indeed, no other African team, have gone near the quarterfinal stage in the FIFA World Cup. It took the Falcons another 12 years before it could secure a win in the World Cup, a 1-0 defeat of Canada at the last edition of the championship held in Germany in 2011.

In June this year, the Super Falcons and two other African teams, the Lioness of Cameroun and Les Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire will fly Africa’s flag at the Canada 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and Omagbemi is highly disturbed.

Speaking with The Guardian from her base in the United States yesterday, Omagbemi, a member of FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup organizing committee in Azerbaijan 2012 and Costa Rica 2014 said:

“The FIFA Women’s World Cup takes place every four years and our women teams in Africa have just the AWC and the All African Games to compete in before going to the World Cup.

Those are not‎ enough to give the teams adequate preparations for championship of this magnitude. “The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is doing well with the male teams in terms of competitions.

They need to extend it to the female teams as well. CAF needs to introduce more competitions like intercontinental club competitions, whereby the first two top teams from each country will meet in a particular location (to reduce financial cost) at the end of every league season and compete against each other,” she said.

Speaking further, Omagbemi said: “There is also the need for youth regional cup competitions for African women teams, the same way the male teams feature in African Youth and Junior Championships every two years.

This will help to bridge the gap in terms of standard already set by several countries in Europe, Asia and South America. It will also go a long way in attracting more younger players into the game of women football in Africa,” she stated.

Omagbemi led the Falcons to win the AWC title in 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004 and also led the team to appear for the first time at Sydney 2000 Olympics Game.

She has coached several American youth teams to success in the game of football. She was the Assistant Coach to the Nigerian U-20 Women team, Falconets, at Japan 2012 FIFA World, where the country lost in the semifinal to USA.

To her, Club Competitions like the CAF Champions League for the women as well as the CAF Confederation Cup will give African players the platform to prepare adequately for the World Cup.

“FIFA is doing a lot to help improve the development of women ‘s football globally. There are several programmes, which FIFA has introduced to help/support member associations from the six different confederations.

But I feel that CAF needs to play a major part in helping countries from Africa to develop their women’s football programmes by organising more competitions to keep the girls busy round the year, instead of waiting for a long period of four years to prepare for the World Cup.

“It will also give birth to more female coaches in Africa because by the time female players are involved in different competitions, there will be more sponsors, and member associations will be motivated to draft more female coaches to their national teams. Female football is feminine,” Omagbemi stated.

Expectations will be on the African champions, Super Falcons, as well as the Lioness of Cameroun and Les Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire to improve Africa’s rating in Canada 2015, but Omagbemi said the task might be difficult. “I believe the three representatives from Africa will do Africa proud, but we need to look beyond the World Cup in Canada.”