Never in the history of women’s football have record African champions Super Falcons had it so bad like it did happen at the just-ended 2015 All Africa Games, where they lost three straight games and ended up without a medal.
The Falcons have been disappointing in recent times but at the African Games in Congo, it came to an all-time low, losing to Ivory Coast (twice) and Cameroon, and returning home without a medal.
“I don’t know what’s happening. I can’t imagine losing three games in Africa. It’s embarrassing. They’ve killed women’s football like they’ve done to the men’s game,” Falcons defender at the 1991 and 1995 World Cups, Omo-Love Branch, said.
But a change of fortunes from Africa’s powerhouses to the continent’s whipping girls was surely going to happen sooner than later for the Falcons, with the way things had gone for the team over the years.
No doubt, the Falcons were dominant on the continent right from the inception of the women’s version of the game in the early 1990s, qualifying for all the Women’s World Cups since 1991 and also winning the African Women’s Championship a record seven times.
Parading the likes of Patience Avre, Maureen Mmadu, Florence Omagbemi, Mercy Akide, Nkiru Okosieme, Ann Chiejine and others, the Falcons reached the quarter-finals of the 1999 Women’s World Cup, their best ever performance at the event. They also reached the last eight of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
That was the highest the Falcons could fly globally and ever since, it’s been one tale of woe or the other for the once dreaded team in Africa. In 2008, their dominance came to an end at the AWC, after having won the five previous tournaments.
Hosts Equatorial Guinea, now a force on the continent, surprised even themselves by beating the Nigerians 1-0 in the semi-final, courtesy of Genoveva Anonma’s 58th minute strike, on their way to winning the tournament.
The Falcons only managed to beat Cameroon 5-4 on penalties, after duration time ended 1-1, in the consolatory third-place game.
The Falcons would reclaim their title again in 2010 but the Equatoguineans emerged champions again two years later, this time, the Falcons ended in a disappointing fourth-place finish.
In Namibia in 2014, the Falcons, made up mainly of players from the Falconets, finalists of that year’s U-20 Women’s Cup, were dominant once more. Playing some fascinating football with the likes of tournament MVP Asisat Oshoala and top scorer Desire Oparanozie, the future seemed bright once more for the Nigerian side.
In fact, Oshoala was named Africa’s best women’s footballer and the youngster consequently sealed a move to Liverpool Ladies from Rivers Angels. That was as far as it got for women’s football.
An amazing display that saw the Falcons come back twice to hold Sweden 3-3 in their opening Group D game at the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada brought some glimpses of hope in June. But subsequent defeats to Australia (2-0) and eventual champions USA (1-0) ensured the African champions crashed out in the group stage once more.
But where the Falcons failed to fly, Cameroon’s Indomitable Lionesses roared. They reached the competition’s Round of 16 after heart-warming victories over Ecuador (6-0) and Switzerland (2-1).
Thereafter the Falcons’ free fall from the height of African football began. The team now managed by ex-assistant coach Christopher Danjuma — on an interim basis after Edwin Okon was dismissed after Canada 2015 — crashed out of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games qualifiers after a disappointing 2-1 defeat against Equatorial Guinea.
It was the second consecutive time the women’s national team would miss out from the Olympics after losing to Cameroon during the qualifiers for the London 2012 Olympics.
Having won the AAG women’s football event in 2003 and 2007, the Falcons failed to qualify for the 2011 edition. Their qualification for the event in Congo came as a soothing balm and football-crazy fans back home had literarily given the women’s football gold medal to Falcons even before the competition began.
“With Falcons in Congo, I believe Nigeria has one gold medal already even before the competition kicks off because they are the best in Africa,” Gabriel Okechukwu, a football fan, said on the eve of the AAG.
Okechukwu was made to eat his words after his beloved team fell thrice, despite raising his hopes by winning their opening two games of the tournament against hosts Congo and Tanzania.
The calamity that trailed the team continued when they suffered their biggest drop in September’s FIFA women’s world rankings. They dropped nine places from 29 to 38 but two-time African champions Equatorial Guinea achieved their highest-ever ranking moving up five places from 55 to 50.
Several factors have contributed to the decline of the women’s game in Nigeria. The standard of the women’s league is very poor with lack of sponsorship and poor welfare packages for players and officials.
NFF executive committee member Chris Green admitted that the team’s poor performances has given the federation heartaches. He said the NFF had begun a probe to nip the problem in the bud and help return the team to winning ways once more.
He said, “For now, the Super Falcons are the sick baby of the federation. They are a major problem and the headship of the NFF wants to tackle it. They have started to probe what the problem really is, from the technical area to personnel; the quality and standard of the league, how fortified the clubs are and if the coaches are competent.
“Thank God the NFF president Pinnick Amaju has the Falcons as one of his major projects. He has started work to re-fix the team and make them the continent’s best once again.
“It’s not that other African countries are catching up with us, but we’ve been static. Now, instead of going up, we are coming down and the other crawling African countries have caught up with us. If we had remained where we were in 2013, they won’t catch up with us.
“This is as a result of the poor quality of the league. Our women’s league is not comparable to what you have in South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana and Cameroon. Most other African countries don’t have women leagues, so we should be winning.
“In the men’s league, there is no team not benefitting from the League Management Company. There is N5m for each club but in the women’s league, so many clubs don’t honour matches because of money. The management of the women’s league should begin to think differently.”
Coaching has been a major problem of the team. No coach has managed the Falcons to two AWC tournaments since 2000. Ismaila Mabo (2000), Sam Okpodu (2002), Godwin Izilein (2004), Effiom Ntiero (2006), Jossy Lad (2008), Eucharia Uche (2010), Kadiri Ikhana (2012) and Edwin Okon (2014) have only been given the opportunity of managing the women’s team once at the AWC.
At this year’s World Cup, Okon attracted himself to the world more as a prayer warrior than as a coach. Every time his team scored in Canada, the coach would drop to his knees and touch his head on the turf in prayer.
“The Nigerian team is a praying team,” Okon said after the Sweden match. In a press conference on June 7 preceding Nigeria’s match against Sweden, Okon baffled journalists by claiming that he knew nothing about the Swedish squad.
Perhaps, after his squad’s ouster, the Rivers Angels gaffer would have learnt a thing or two in coaching: you have to do your job well before God can play for you.
He made zero substitutions during Nigeria’s 3–3 opening draw against Sweden, telling the media, “We did not make any substitutions and that is because the girls are fit.” The girls got worn out and Nigeria didn’t score again at the tournament.
Okon’s performance in Canada speaks volumes of the quality of coaches hired by the NFF to manage the women’s national teams. He virtually turned Rivers Angels to the national team, with the bulk of players coming from the Port Harcourt side. His successor Christopher Danjuma has not fared better, in fact he has had to steer the Falcons through their worst outings in the history of the team.
Even though Green admitted that the country did not have good coaches for women football, he lent his support to Okon, describing him as one of the best in the league.
“Truly, the set of coaches we’ve had in the women’s national teams are not the best. But Okon is among the best even though he is not a flamboyant coach. He won the AWC, qualified us for the World Cup and the AAG.
“But he was removed. A better coach should have been brought in but they hired someone (Danjuma) worse than him. We didn’t win a medal (in Congo) and we were beaten thrice. The new coach also didn’t qualify the team for the Olympics. It shows something is wrong.
“I’m not trying to defend him, but most of these things happen without Felix Anyansi-Agwu (Head NFF Technical Committee) knowing.”
Pioneer Falcons coach Paul Hamilton blamed the inconsistency of the federation on the poor performances of the teams.
“What has happened is a wake-up call; the FA changes like a woman changes her cloth. When the FA was stable, there were stable coaches and the team did well. I’m disturbed about the continuity of the players and coaches,” he said.
Ismaila Mabo, who led the Falcons to their best ever showing at the 1998 World Cup, said overconfidence and lack of adequate preparations have been the bane of the team in recent times.
Mabo said, “Preparations recently haven’t been what they were in the past, that’s why the Super Falcons are becoming a forgotten entity as far as women’s football is concerned. Six months to a competition, they should be in camp at least thrice.
“But we now see it as a birth right to beat any team in Africa except when we play Cameroon, Ghana and South Africa. It was recently that Equatorial Guinea came up and they dethroned us in 2008. Countries like Algeria no longer fear us because we are no longer unbeatable.
“We didn’t qualify for the last Olympics, we won’t be going to the next one and now we are losing to countries we shouldn’t lose to. I’ll call on the NFF to refocus their attention on the Falcons, so that they can regain their lost glory.”
He added that if women, especially ex-Falcons players, were given prominent roles in the game — as is done in other parts of the world — it might help turn around the fortunes of the team.
“In countries like Germany, USA and Sweden, their head coaches are women. We have the likes of Ann Chiejine, Mercy Akide and Florence Omagbemi, who can do well as coaches of the team. I mentioned these players not based on sentiments but because they have the coaching qualifications to get the job done,” Mabo added.
Hamilton, popularly known as Wonder Boy, agrees with his former assistant in the women’s national team.
“Why are we not inviting the girls who played for us before? Where is Ann, Mercy and Eucharia (Uche)? They should be involved with the team. Even if they are not coaching the team, they can help in scouting good players for the team,” he said.
South Africa-based Branch said favouritism and sentiments on the part of the federation, and indiscipline players have been a major problem of the team.
She said, “Coaching is not the problem. The problem is the top people at the NFF, the big guys. We have good players but people want to bring their girlfriends and goddaughters to the team. I heard some girls are even forced to sleep with officials just to be part of the team.
“I remember when they (Falcons) came here (South Africa) for the AWC in 2010. I saw the way some players were talking to their coaches. I asked them why they were talking to their coaches like that. I discovered that some of the girls were dating senior officials and that was why they could talk to their coaches like that. That is what is happening to women’s football in Nigeria.”
The ex-player turned coach added, “We didn’t play for the money; we played football because we wanted to make women proud. I don’t know why Nigeria is different. The first time Bayana Bayana defeated Falcons South Africans were happy. I told them it’s their time but we haven’t learnt.
“I’m far away but if they can allow us to manage the team, we will make it better. If I get the opportunity, I will give them my conditions, nobody will bring players for me. I will have an assistant who will take care of that.
“I will want everyone on the technical crew to be a woman. I won’t want a guy among us. Hamilton, Mabo were the best coaches we had, they didn’t date their players.”
The poor condition of women’s football in Nigeria has ensured that the falcon — a bird of prey — can no longer hear the falconer. Have things gradually fallen apart for the giants of African women’s football? Will the Falcons fly high again in the African air?
Green confessed that it will take the federation some time to get the team back on track.
“It’s going to take us a few years to get back to where we used to be but we must improve the quality of our league and the players must be paid,” Green said.
Falcons line-up
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