Nigeria’s AWCON 2016 triumph

ON  Saturday, December 3, Nigeria’s senior female national football team, the Super Falcons, confirmed their supremacy in African football when they outclassed Cameroon in the African Women’s Championship 2016 final to win their record eighth title. The Falcons successfully contained pressure from the valiant and determined hosts who were desperately seeking their first AWCON gold at the packed Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo, Yaounde, and silenced them through an 84th minute strike by Desire Oparanozie. The Falcons have now won the competition a record 10 times, eight in the tournament format.

The win also came with new records:  Florence Omagbemi, the team’s 41-year-old tactician, became  the second female trainer to lift the AWCON, replicating the feat achieved in South Africa by fellow compatriot, Eucharia Uche, in 2010, while Arsenal Ladies’ star, Asisat Oshoala, became the fourth Nigerian, after Mercy Akide, Perpetua Nkwocha and Desire Oparanozie, to finish as the top goal scorer in the AWCON. The 2015 BBC World Player of the Year, who had previously  won the Golden Boot as a Falconets player in the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Canada, scored four goals in the Falcons’ opening game against Mali, then added a goal each in the draw with Ghana and win over Kenya at the group stage. Omagbemi, as captain of the team, lifted the AWCON in 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004, and was also part of the  team which competed for the very first time at the Summer Olympics in Australia, in the year 2000. A former assistant coach in the Under-20 football team, she was only named the Falcons’ coach in 2016 after the sacking of Coach Christopher Danjuma following the team’s poor performance at the 2015 African Games.

The Falcons’ 2016 outing was indeed very impressive. After beating Mali 6-0 in the opening game, they played a goalless draw with Ghana, then outclassed Kenya 4-0 at the group stage. They then defeated South Africa 1-0 in the semi finals and went on to beat hosts Cameroon by the same margin in the final. Speaking on the Falcons’ triumph, Coach Omagbemi  dwelt on the compactness of the team. She said: “As a defending champion, you have the pride and the prestige. The players understood all this pressure, stuck to plan and played together as a team because every game we played came with different expectations.”

In his own reaction, President Muhammadu Buhari  lauded the Falcons “indomitable spirit, resilience and team work” which spurred them to victory in spite of the strong opposition from a vociferous Cameroonian home crowd. The win, he said, had lifted the spirits of sports-loving Nigerians.  While saluting the technical competence of the coaching crew, he assured that the Federal Government would not relent in doing its best to promote sports within available resources.

We salute the Super Falcons for their outstanding outing in Cameroon. The team showed remarkable resilience, skills, physical and mental strength, and tactical discipline. Placing the national interest above their personal interests, the players gave their very best performances at the tournament and, as acknowledged by President Buhari, justified the confidence reposed in them by millions of soccer-loving Nigerians. Therefore, we call on the president, state governors and philanthropists to extend to the players, the same courtesies usually extended to their male counterparts after such outstanding performances. That way, they would be motivated to give even more to the nation in future competitions.

We also call on the Nigerian Football Federation to pay any outstanding allowances of the players and their coaches. Prior to the commencement of the 2016 AWCON, Omagbemi was being owed several months of salary arrears and the NFF only gave assurances that she would be paid before the team departed for the tournament, after the story became public. As we have maintained in our previous editorials, refusing to pay national team athletes  and coaches their dues demoralises them and detracts from the credibility of the NFF and, by extension, the Nigerian establishment.

However, the fact that the Super Falcons have yet to replicate their African success  on the global stage, either at the FIFA Women’s World Cup or the Olympic Games, is still a big cause for worry. The Super Falcons have been to every World Cup since 1991, but only once have they made the second round of the competition. In 2003, they turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the first round, failing to score a single goal and losing all three Group A matches. In 2007, they drew only one of their Group B matches. It is thus incumbent on football stakeholders in the country to come together and chart the way forward for the senior female national side, not least because the Falconets have recorded better performances on the global stage.

For the moment, though, let the celebrations continue. The Super Falcons have made Nigerians happy. It is their turn to be made happy.