By Harry Awurumibe
Those who still believe that Nigeria is a force to reckon with in women’s football in Africa at both clubs and national team levels should better wake up from the dream land and accept the current reality that Nigeria has fallen from top to bottom of the ladder.
Although Nigeria still occupy the Number One position in Africa according to the monthly FIFA Women’s World Ranking, the reality on ground shows otherwise because Nigeria is currently the Number Four in the continent behind South Africa, Morocco and even Zambia as all the three countries defeated the West African nation in the last Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) held in Morocco last July.
Infact, keen followers of women’s football development in Nigeria and across the world can attest that Nigeria has totally lost grip of her top position in Africa if the spate of bad results the senior national women’s football team, the Super Falcons recorded in the last WAFCON in Morocco are anything to rely upon.
Nigeria’s Super Falcons were defeated in the group stage by South Africa, beaten in the semi final by Morocco via penalty shoot-out and, also edged by lowly rated Zambia in the third placed match of the tournament.
Four months after the African women’s football fiesta in Morocco where the Super Falcons suffered three defeats in six matches, Nigeria Women’s Football League (NWFL) champions Bayelsa Queens football club of Yenagoa also suffered two defeats in the hands of champions of Morocco, ASFAR Club in the just concluded 2nd CAF Women’s Champions League held in Morocco.
Bayelsa Queens who also represented West African Football Union (WAFU) Zone B in the eight-team CAF competition were also defeated in the group stage by South African champions Mamelodi Sundowns.
The club was able to bounce back to beat TP Mazembe women’s outfit in the 3rd place match to win CAF WCL Bronze medal which can be termed an improved position than what Rivers Angels FC of Port Harcourt, another club from Nigeria achieved in the 2021 edition of the African club competition.
A closer look at the steady decline of Nigerian women’s football teams especially the recent capitulation of the Super Falcons, Bayelsa Queens and Rivers Angels when pitched against South Africa, Moroccan and other African opponents, clearly shows that Nigeria has been left behind in the development of women’s football in Africa, not to talk of the world.
Prior to 2022 WAFCON, Nigeria has been bestriding the African women’s football scene like a colossus and in the process has won nine WAFCON trophy with the first being at the first edition of AWC hosted by Nigeria in 1998.
Add two times Nigeria was the champion of Africa in 1991 and 1995 when the Super Falcons were Africa’s sole representatives in the maiden FIFA Women’s World Cup final and the second edition in China and Sweden respectively, the country has won the prestigious African women’s football trophy a record 11 times.
Indeed, Nigeria used to be the powerhouse of African football especially in the women cadre as the country was in a class of her own when Nigeria hosted the 1st African Women’s Championship (now WAFCON) 22 years ago, the Super Falcons, took the title in an unbeaten run of five matches scoring a remarkable 28 goals without conceding a single goal.
In fact, Nigeria’s new nemesis at national team and clubside levels Morocco was thrashed 8-0 by the Super Falcons in the opening match of the maiden AWC at Ranch Bees stadium in Kaduna just as the team tutored by veteran coach Ismaila Mabo demolished other opponents with ease.
The Nigerian team captained by the then 23-year-old Florence Omagbemi were pure class as they subsequently decimated DR Congo (4-0) and Egypt (6-0) to finish on top of Group A with the maximum points. They also hit Cameroon for six without conceeding in the semi-final and defeated the Black Queens of Ghana 2-0 in the final with goals in either half of the epic match by vice captain Nkiru Okosieme and speedster Stella Mbachu.
It is on record that for 11straight years Nigeria did not lose any match to an African opposition from Saturday, February 16, 1991 when Nigeria played her first international Grade A match, a FIFA Women’s World Cup African qualifier tie against Black Queens of Ghana till December, 2002 during the 3rd WAFCON in Warri, Delta state.
The Black Queens inflicted the Falcons’ first ever defeat by an African opponent at the championship following their 1-0 group stage win at the 2002 edition held in Nigeria, although the host country faced Ghana again in the final and had the opportunity to avenge their group stage loss.
Nigeria defeated Ghana 2-0 in the final to win the trophy donated to CAF by former First Lady of Nigeria, Dr. (Mrs) Maryam Sani Abacha for keep even as the two goals of the game were scored by attacking midfielder Perpetua Nkwocha and defensive midfielder Effioanwan Ekpo, both of who play for Pelican Stars of Calabar to seal victory in style for Nigeria.
That was how fearsome the Nigerian senior women’s football team was from 1990s and 2000s which was the reason the country went on to lift the WAFCON trophy six more time after the 2002 including in 2018 WAFCON in Ghana.
Also, Nigeria has been a regular face at the FIFA Women’s World Cup final since the maiden edition in 1991 in China. The country has also qualified for the 2023 edition in Australia and New Zealand thereby becoming one of the few countries to have qualified for the women version of the Mundial.
However, Nigeria’s superiority over other African countries in women’s football has since evaporated like early morning dew as the dethroned African champions have fallen from grace to grass.
But the rot in women’s football in Nigeria did not start at the last edition of WAFCON in Morocco in 2022 where the country finished in the fourth place with the Super Falcons playing the worst brand of football that was too ugly to behold with the eyes.
Specifically, women’s football has witnessed a retarded growth in Nigeria in the past decade country with grassroots football worst affected as the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) past and present has not made a deliberate efforts to develop women’s football from the basics.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, the supply chain for the national team players was well oil-ed with private and corporate bodies promoting, sponsoring and developing women’s football at the grassroots level hence the Super Falcons ruled the African continent for decades.
For example, pioneer women’s football promoters like Otunba Christopher Abisuga, Elder Eddington Kuejunbola and Prince Larry Eze, proprietors of the defunct Golden Wonders of Lagos;
Ufuoma Babes of Warri and Rivers Angels Ladies of Port Harcourt as well as Princess Hannah Ngozi Bola Jegede, the Proprietress of Princess Jegede of Lagos and two-time Executive Board Member of NFF were amongst the patriots who spent their wealth and time to promote women’s football in Nigeria.
Aside the quartet, others who contributed to the development of women’s football in Nigeria in the 1990s are Chief (Mrs) Gina Yesibo, a matron of Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria (YSFON) powered by late shipping magnet, Chief Dokun Abidoye; late Chief (Mrs) Simbiat Abiola, owner of Kakanfo Queens FC of Abeokuta and Mazi John Obijiaku, Chairman of Flying Angels FC of Lagos that produced longest serving Super Falcons No.1 goalkeeper Ann Agumanu-Chiejine.
They and others who are captured in the book: ‘Genesis of Female Soccer in Nigeria (1991)’ co-authored by Harry Chidozie Awurumibe and Christopher Akintunde Abisuga, played crucial roles in conjunction with some pioneer women’s football journalists to give the game a massive push for national and international recognition in 1990s.
Perhaps, worthy of recognition is the pioneer corporate sponsorship role of Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc , Julius Berger Nigeria Plc and private but wealthy
Nigerians like the late Chief Moshood Abiola, Chief Sebastian Babatunde Williams, Chief C.N.Okoli, .Alhaji Grema Mohammed, Chief Femi Olukanmi among others for supporting women’s football.
While Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc and Pepsi were the first corporate sponsors of the Super Falcons, Nigeria Women’s Football Premier League and Nigeria Women’s Challenge Cup competitions for four years, Cadbury Nigeria and Julius Berger donated cash to NFF in January 1991 to start camping the pioneer set of players invited to Super Falcons camp for the first-ever international match against Ghana Black Queens in February 16, 1991.
With the above mentioned overwhelming support, women’s football grew in leaps and bound in the 1990s through the early 2000s and the result rubbed off on the huge progress the country made in the game which could not be matched by any other country in Africa.
Also, during the period under review, the women’s football leaque backed by the sponsorship funds was well structured and it ran full circle on home and away for many years with clubs traveling across Nigeria to honour their away matches.
For example, the then National Marketing Manager of Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc, Mr. Iain Nelson ensured that the Pepsi sponsorship money was disbursed directly to the clubs while NFF received quarterly allocations for administrative purposes.
The company instituted a reward model that captured the contributions of the clubs, players, officials and other women’s football stakeholders like members of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) as reporters who distinguished themselves in women’s football reportage were rewarded monthly along others in the monthly Pepsi Best Women’s Football Reporter Awards.
However, all these activations have been concerned to the history books as neither the Super Falcons nor the women’s football league have had sponsors for many years now as both have been operating without any sponsors till date.
Those who are managing the nations football at every level have failed to find sponsors for the women’s football leaque and women’s national teams including Falconets and Flamingos since the Pepsi sponsorship ended over ten years ago.
This is even as many African countries especially South Africa, Morocco and Egypt have made deliberate efforts to invest heavily on women’s football development, a situation which have seen these nations overtake Nigeria in both club and national teams successes in the recent CAF women’s football competitions.
For example, Morocco has invested so much in women’s football in the past few years as the current President of Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), Fouzi Lekjaa in furtherance to the development of women’s football signed convention to uplift the women’s game in the Kingdom in August 2020.
The project saw FRMF announced the launch of a women’s First and Second Division Professional Women’s League from 2021 after signing a new convention with the National Women’s League (NWL) to take women’s football to a new level.
Apart from the two tiers of women’s league football, FRMF also established a National U-17 Championship in addition to Regional Championships for different youth categories across Morocco.
Also, the new plan aims at supporting the management of women’s football clubs in Morocco on the administrative and financial level through training and support provided by the Technical Directorate and the FRMF’s Department of Finance.
Finally, to ensure that the vision did not only succeed in the short term but yields bountiful fruits in the long run, the Federation announced that women’s football will be entitled to funding of up to $130,000 for the top flight women’s league clubs and $86,000 for the Second Division to support the remuneration of players and technical staff on a monthly basis since 2021.
“This is an important step to allow female talents to practice this popular sport in good conditions and to give them the opportunity to start and pursue their professional career,” President Lekjaa said after signing the Convention in 2020.
True to the vision of Lekjaa, Morocco has seen a huge return on investment sooner than envisaged as the country hosted the CAF 2022 WAFCON and won Silver medal in addition to qualifying for their maiden FIFA Women’s World Cup final in Australia and New Zealand.
Only last Sunday, Moroccan Women’s Football League (WFL) champions, ASFAR club thrashed defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa 4-0 to win the 2nd CAF Women’s Champions League trophy on home soil which is another victory for FRMF President.
In the same vein, South Africa’s senior women’s football team, Banyana Banyana have huge sponsorship partnership with SASOL as the country’s energy and chemical company involved in mining of coal and converting it into synthetic fuel and chemicals, entered into multi-million Rands sponsorship deal since 2009.
The company which is like our Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation now Limited (NNPC) recently rewarded the Banyana Banyana with a whopping R5,550,000.00 bonus for winning the WAFCON trophy for the first time in their history. This is outside the R15 million bonus the South African government gave to the women’s team through the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa.
Earlier, the South Africa Football Association (SAFA) through its President Dr. Danny Jordaan had deposited the sum of R9.2 million bonus the team was promised by SAFA before the start of the WAFCON tournament in Morocco in the team’s dedicated accounts unlike what happens in Nigeria.
In spite of the massive financial incentives from the government, SAFA and SASOL have renewed its sponsorship deal to continue to support the women’s team and league till 2025 just as the winning coach of Banyana Banyana Desiree Ellis has demanded that more sponsors get involved in the women’s game.
“Look, Sasol is the sponsor of Banyana Banyana and the Sasol League but that is not enough, we need more sponsors to come on board to make sure we take it to another level, to make sure that clubs are able to pay their players.
“Look at Morrocco, they have a two-tier professional league, so they have really invested, which is the result of them being in the final. If you want to move with these teams, these countries that are investing, you have got to invest as well, ” Ellis said.
Sadly, the case is quite different in Nigeria as our women’s national teams and clubs live from hand to mouth with closing of multi-million sponsorship deals by the federation, league organisers and management of clubs alien to Nigeria’s football culture.
Lack of sponsorships for the women’s football at national team level and women’s football league across the three tiers- NWFL (Premier), Professional and Nationwide (Amateur)-have ensured that the development and growth of women’s football have stalled for a long time in Nigeria.
For the above reasons keen followers of women’s football development in the country and across the world can attest that Nigeria has totally lost grip of her top position in Africa and may no longer compete favourably with South Africa and Morocco, countries that have invested and still investing massively in women’s football.
The future is blink for the growth of women’s football in Nigeria and without a deliberate efforts to invest heavily in the development of the game like the two African countries mentioned above, Nigeria’s women’s football teams and clubs may no longer win the WAFCON trophy and the CAF Women’s Champions League Cup respectively.
This is the crux of the matter.
