The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) latest Women’s Ranking which placed Zambia, Africa’s sole qualifier for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games women’s football event in the 100th position in the world has shown that the game is progressing in the continent.
This is against the backdrop that Zambia eliminated the second best team in Africa, Cameroon to qualify for the Olympics for the first time in history just as the best team in Africa and three-time Olympics qualifiers, Nigeria did not also qualify for the multi sports events in Japan.
Nigeria, nine-time winner of the prestigious biannual Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) trophy was herself eliminated by lowly Cote d Ivoire in the second round of the African qualifiers right in Lagos.
South Africa which presented the continent with Cameroon and Nigeria in the FIFA Women’s World Cup final in France was also bundled out in the first round while another powerhouse, Ghana did not make any head way in the qualifiers either.
But this is where the good news ended because the position of Zambia, the African flagbearer in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics is a sad commentary on women’s football in Africa. The latest women’s football ranking put the Southern African nation in a distant 100th place in the ladder.
This position no doubt makes a mockery of women’s football in Africa because the continent’s sole representative in Tokyo Olympics can’t match the top countries coming to the same Games especially the reigning World Champions, United States of America (USA); the runner up at the last FIFA Women’s World Cup final in France , Netherlands and third placed team, Sweden.
In fact, Zambia cannot hold her own in a match against any of the world’s top 50 nations where African countries like Nigeria (38 in the world) belong. It showed clearly that Africa is not making any progress if Nigeria which finished in the 7th position in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup final in USA, can be languishing in the 38th place in 2020.
To buttress the argument, Cameroon which Zambia eliminated is ranked in the 51st position while South Africa (53) is not placed higher. Other African countries except the trio-Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa are not ranked higher than India (55), and Jordan (58). Tonga (88) and Nepal (99)
Only Ghana (60), Cote d Ivoire (63), Tunisia (69) are better than war-torned Iran (70) Tonga (88) and Nepal (99) even as they are also better ranked than Zambia, Africa’s sole qualifierfor the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
A close look at the rankings showed that only Nigeria made the top 50 cut just as other 51 countries in Africa fell out of the bracket.
The implication is that luck alone cannot carry Zambia far at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics postponed till 2021 because of the novel Coronavirus pandemic hence Africa is unfortunate once again to be represented by another weak team which will return home after three matches.
This may probably force the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and FIFA to further remove the 1.5% allocation to Africa after they have reduced the slot from 2% (two teams) to present one team and a play-off with South American Confederation to secure a place for African second team in Japan.
However, this is the time for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) under the leadership of President Ahmad Ahmad to get serious to save women’s football in Africa from continued slide to pit while the rest of the world are witnessing a quantum growth of the women’s game just as the introduction of African Women’s Club Championship and AWCON U-17, 20 and 23 can revive the game in Africa.
