Tag: Falcons

Cup holders Super Falcons of Nigeria will know their group phase opponents for this year’s Africa Women Cup of Nations when the draw ceremony holds at the Palais Polyvalent des Sports, Yaounde on Sunday.

Already, the Confederation of African Football has announced that the Falcons will head Group B of the eight –nation tournament, starting in Cameroon on 19th November 2016.

Hosts Cameroon will head Group A, with Ghana and South Africa also to avoid each other in the group phase as a result of having the best results in the last three editions of the Women’s AFCON.

Egypt, Kenya, Mali and Zimbabwe make up the rest of the field in this year’s finals.

Nigeria stayed in 37th spot after gathering a total of 1602 points in the latest FIFA rankings for women released by FIFA yesterday.

Despite this motionless position, the Super Falcons remain the best team in Africa and are closely followed by Chinese Taipei who are ranked 38th with 1590 points.

Cameroon are rated second based team in Africa with 1496 points to place 46th in the world with the Black Queens of Ghana amazing 1475 points to stay third in Africa and 48th in the world.

The United States remain the top rated women team in the world with 2174 points, followed by Germany in second place with 2117 points while France are placed third after gathering 2068 points.

 Sweden recently qualified for Rio 2016 as Europe’s third and final participant after coming out on top of a four-team mini-tournament hosted by the Netherlands. As a result, Pia Sundhage’s side have risen two spots to sixth, while Norway have fallen to 11th, making room for Canada in the top ten.

Meanwhile Switzerland have also moved up a spot to 19th, courtesy of their 2-1 win over Norway.

The Matildas, meanwhile, as a result of winning the AFC qualifying tournament, have jumped four places to fifth, their highest-ever position. China PR, who finished just behind Australia, have climbed five places to 12th, which is their best ranking since May 2010.

Super Falcons captain, Evelyn Nwabuoku has assured that the reigning African champions will come back to their very best form.

The seven-time Africans queens are currently in camp preparing for the 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) qualifying clash against either of the West African foes, Senegal or Guinea.

The Falcons were drawn bye into the second round of the qualifying race but must wait for the outcome of the Senegal and Guinea clash later in March to know who to face in home-and-away contest in April 04 -12.

Nwabuoku said the coaches are working tirelessly to put the players in perfect shape for the AWCON qualifying match.

“I know that we’ve not trained for long but with the turnout of players since we resumed and the kind of training we’ve been going through I know definitely we will make Nigeria proud by qualifying for the AWCON later in the year in Cameroon,” said the BiiK Kazgurt ace to thenff.com.

Nwabuoku said though the home-based players have done exceedingly well in training they still need the experiences and services of the foreign-based professionals to make a perfect team.

In terms of experience we still need the foreign based players. I am looking forward to their arrival so that they can use their experience to help the team. The home based will be able to learn one or two things from them as well,” said the former Rivers Angels jewel.

Nwabuoku agreed with the coaches that there will be no automatic shirts for any player. That’s football the coaches are right in saying there won’t be an automatic jersey for any player.

“When the foreign-based arrive they will have to prove that they deserve the jersey. They have to show that they want to play and that they are good enough to play too,” said Nwabuoku.

Former Super Falcons’ star, Vera Okolo has spilled the beans about the dismal treatment handed out to the Super Falcons at the 2004 African Women’s Championship in South Africa.

The former Delta Queens player, whose lone strike secured an Olympic ticket for the Super Falcons at the expense of Bayana Bayana, spoke about her displeasure at the welfare of the players while on duty for their country.

“I cannot imagine a team representing a country as popular and blessed as Nigeria, to go for a tournament like that and be treated shabbily. If I open up on the terrible things that happened in South Africa, you will pity the players and heap praises on us,” Okolo told the Vanguard.

“We played that tournament with two pairs of white jerseys and one pair of green jerseys. Those were what we played with for over two weeks.

In fact, I played two matches with groin injury, all in the name of wanting to win for Nigeria.”

The former player, who is now attending the Nigeria Institute of Sports (NIS) also detailed how the ladies were owed their due pay.

“Normally, when you go for such tournaments, as long as you win, you get your match bonus after a game.

But it was a different ball game in South Africa. After winning our first match, we got to the hotel, expecting our bonus. It started from the kits.

After giving us three jerseys, we asked why, they said they were bringing kits from Nigeria, that we should make do with what we have. We said, no problem as we were focused on retaining the cup.

“It was strange but we told them that it was not really the jersey that play the game but the players. On match days we avoided exchanging jerseys. It became a crime to do so.

“We told them that we were not going back to Nigeria without the cup. And when the bonuses were not being paid after wining our matches, they became deeply worried and we rose to tell them not to allow that to weigh them down.”

The former African Woman Footballer of the Year nominee lamented how the Nigerian Football Federation(NFF) abandoned the team in terms of match bonuses and feeding.

“Even in Algiers 2007, it happened. Before most of our matches, we drank garri. But we felt good even with it. After the tournament in South Africa, Kikelomo Ajayi, who was our captain was mandated by us to go and meet the officials to pay us the bonuses but we were shocked when she returned to tell us that they said we should go back to Nigeria to collect the money.

“That was when we said no, that if we got to Nigeria, they would not pay. Experiences have  shown that our officials don’t stand by their words, so we refused to go back home until the money was paid.

“Even when the embassy officials said that we were on our own and they would only provide for our breakfast, we were not moved. It was at that time that Nigerians in South Africa knew of our plight and said that as long as they were alive that we would not lack anything good in South Africa.

“They were bringing us food; in fact, we had so much that we were even giving out to visitors and friends. We had more than we had during the tournament. They said we should have told them all this while but we were not supposed to wash our dirty linen outside. But it just got to that extent that we could not hide it any more.

“There was a time that the former Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili had to intervene. He called (Peterside) Idah, when he heard of our travails, to feed the players and send the bill to him.

“It was like that until the money was now given to us and immediately, they said we should pack to go to Nigeria.

“Then President, Olusegun Obasanjo gave us N1m each, after hearing what happened.”

She spoke about the present Super Falcons, stating her disappointment with the team’s inability to secure an Olympic ticket for Rio 2016 and outlined the failure of the Falcons to progress to the knockout stage at the FIFA Women’s World Cup as lack of inexperience in the side.

“It baffles me a lot. Before I joined the team, we were a winning team and we won during my time. I thank God for coach Ismaila Mabo for giving me the opportunity to play for Nigeria.

“Even when I was injured, he told the doctor to work on me and I was injected and played the final match of Algiers 2007, where I scored the winning goal with that same leg that was hurting.

“I don’t know who to blame for what is going on now. I saw good players at the World Cup in Canada. I was disappointed that a coach will play 90 minutes without substitutions,”she said.

Super Falcons interim head coach, Chris Danjuma has said his match plan is 100% with the domestic players for the upcoming All Africa Games in Brazzaville, Congo.

The African champions are expected to open their title account against hosts, Congo on September 6.

Danjuma said the signal from the overseas players is a bit uncomfortable and worrisome few days to the commencement of the quadrennial women’s football event in Congo.

“Right now we are concentrating on the players at home, they are the ones we are 100% certain to prosecute our matches in Brazzaville, Congo. And I want to report that their responses for the challenges ahead have been encouraging and wonderful.

“We have told them in no uncertain term that Super Falcons have already set a standard in top championships.

“We are charging them to go to Brazzaville, Congo to carve an everlasting niche for themselves. The responses from the overseas players are not encouraging as their clubs are giving us dates for their release around September 9 and 12.

“That’s quite funny maybe they are cashing in on the fact that the All Africa Games is not captured on FIFA calendar. However, hopefully we are expecting the captain, Evelyn Nwabuoku, Onome Ebi and Esther Sunday on Saturday.

“We are not, however, banking on that until we see them in camp or any other player outside the shores of the country,” said Danjuma to supersport.com.

Falcons will campaign for qualification to the semis in Group A together with the hosts, Congo, Tanzania and Ivory Coast. Team Nigeria is expected to depart the shores of the country to Brazzaville, Congo on August 30 or 31.