The Nigeria Football Federation moves to revive the fortunes of the Super Falcons, with the employment of Eucharia Uche as coach. Can she do the job?
By Seun Bisuga
Five times on the trot, the Super Falcons won the African Women’s Championship, AWC, and established themselves as the queens of the continent. Then came 2008 in Equatorial Guinea, where the AWC was held. The Super Falcons exited at the semi-final, having fallen to the hosts and eventual winners. That failure aroused serious concerns at home, given that the Falcons usually lifted moods whenever the country’s male team failed to live up to expectations.
To revive the fortunes of the team, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has appointed the team’s former star, Eucharia Uche, as coach.
Uche had a distinguished career in the team, winning the AWC four times and was the first player of the team to score a hat-trick. She has also bagged coaching licences locally and internationally.
She, however, has a tough job on her hands. The Super Falcons need to return to the peak of the continent’s female football and the world stage, where the team has continually suffered stage fright.
Uche, who is the first female coach of the team, believes she is up to the task. “I’m going to put in everything to ensure that we have a formidable team… We are going to make sure that we raise a team that will make Nigerians proud, a team that will win the African Championship and world tournaments,” she said.
The newly appointed coach identified poor preparations and the use of ageing players as the major problems of the team. “Our European counterparts prepare ahead of time. They don’t wait until there’s a competition before they start preparations, playing friendly matches and tournaments to keep in shape. In Africa and Nigeria particularly, we wait until the competition is in sight,” Uche observed.
She believes that lack of sponsorship support for female football is responsible for poor preparations, performances and low morale of players.
Good talk. But not everyone is impressed. Princess Bola Jegede, a prominent name in the country’s female football, sees Uche as inexperienced. She reckons that Uche should have been appointed to handle the U-20 or U-17 team instead of the Falcons.
The new coach thinks Jegede’s assessment is inaccurate. “When she talks of experience, I wonder what she means, because I have not only coached clubsides, I have coached the U-17, U-20 and was an assistant coach to the Super Falcons…I am ripe, qualified and experienced enough, locally and internationally, to manage any team in Nigeria. I bagged a coaching badge at the National Institute of Sport, NIS. I have gone to Confederation of African Football, CAF, courses in South Africa and Tanzania. I have also attended instructor courses. I have a Unied States B licence coaching badge and I’m preparing to go for my A licence either from UEFA or US. I have also bagged a A licence in NFF certified coaching course,” she said.
She, however, retains her respect for Jegede, whom she describes as “a mother.”
“ When we started female football, she was among the women that put in their best to ensure that female football found its footing. She was concerned about the welfare of players and their careers. There is no way anybody who has benefited from female football will see Jegede as an enemy,” she explained.
Uche is conscious of the threat posed by countries like South Africa, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea and believes that the Falcons must get involved in many competitions to stay ahead of them. South Africa and Ghana have been playing in FIFA-organised tournaments, while the Falcons have not played competitively since 2008. “I know that the ambition of South Africa and Ghana is to be at the World Cup. They can only achieve this by winning the AWC. That has been their ambition and they have been working hard to achieve it. We should have played in at least a four-nation tournament last year, but getting those in power to approve our proposals has been a problem. This was because of the misunderstandings that we had. We are trying to submit new proposals, which we believe they will approve now,”she said.
Uche is worried about the reliance on government to finance the Falcons and other national teams. “The Super Falcons don’t have any serious sponsor. The sponsorship of national teams should not be left to the NFF or the government. In South Africa and Ghana, you see companies scrambling to sponsor the female team, but it’s not the same here. This area needs to be looked into so that interested companies benefiting from the nation can sponsor the national team,” she added.
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