Nigeria’s women’s football team rise above poor management to clinch continental trophy

LAGOS: Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu on Monday hosted and splashed gifts on the triumphant national women’s football team who overcame poor preparations and missing payments to win their record-extending 10th Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title.

The Super Falcons’ comeback 3-2 victory over host Morocco in Saturday’s thrilling final was applauded by Tinubu and many in Nigeria, a football-loving nation where passion and hard work often triumphs over institutional challenges.

The continental success, analysts say, papers over the mismanagement of the women’s team by the country’s authorities. The success of the country had come in spite of the country.

“They have been able to dominate even though the Nigerian soccer authorities do not put as much funding, care, attention, and planning into the way the women’s national team is run,” Solace Chukwu, a Lagos-based football analyst, told The Associated Press.

A difference in treatment

The team had been owed match bonuses for years, once resulting in a training boycott in 2022. Even as they triumphed on the way to the finals in Morocco, the backlog of payments was only approved by the president days before Saturday’s final. They also could not hold competitive friendly matches and their training kits were said to not have been available.

It is a common problem in Nigeria where sporting competitions are often dogged by issues of underfunding, corruption, and mismanagement that have led to high-profile scandals resulting in athletes choosing to represent other countries in protest.

Women’s teams are affected the most, partly because of how women have always been viewed in the Nigerian society, according to Oluwashina Okeleji, a sport analyst with focus on Africa.

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