After the disappointment of failing to make the dream of La Decima (The Tenth) come true at the 12th Women Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in staged by Morocco last year – the Super Falcons even failing to make the podium for the first time in many years – Head Coach Randy Waldrum is optimistic of an impressive performance at the forthcoming FIFA Women's World Cup finals coming up in Australia & New Zealand in the summer.
The American tactician is full of optimism, and is confident that his team can go far in the global tournament, but insists they have to take it one step at a time to achieve greatness.
"The first target for us at the World Cup is to advance out of the group stage,” Waldrum told the thenff.com.
"Everyone wants to get to the knockout stage but obviously in order to achieve that, you have to advance out of the group,
and now, our focus is principally on doing that."
The Super Falcons survived a huge scare at the 12th Women Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco. Even though the team finished in fourth place, thereby picking the last automatic ticket from Africa to Australia & New Zealand, Nigerians saw it as a disappointing outing, and rightly so. For a team that had won nine of the previous 11 editions of the competition, losing three out of its six matches in Morocco was seen as a disaster.
The team lost to eventual champions South Africa narrowly in the opening match, and then lost to the host nation Morocco via the lottery of penalty shootout in the semi finals – with two key players red-carded. As it turned out, the Falcons failed to overcome the set-back as they eventually lost to Zambia in the third-place match by a lone goal.
Waldrum would want to quickly wipe out such an unflattering record with a better and improved performance by the most successful women's team in Africa at the forthcoming World Cup to be co-hosted Down Under.
Nigeria will tackle Olympic champions Canada, co-hosts Australia and Republic of Ireland in the group stage of the biggest FIFA Women’s World Cup finals ever, in group B of the tournament that begins on 20th July. Australia & New Zealand 2023 is the first time that the FIFA Women’s World Cup will welcome 32 teams – the same number as the men’s tournament.
The Falcons will be domiciled in Brisbane where they will play two of their three matches, with the other game in another Australian city, Melbourne.
Nigeria is in the elite group of only seven countries that have never failed to qualify for the FIFA Women's World Cup since the competition was launched in China 32 years ago.
Federation Cup: NFF reviews registration fee downwards
The Executive Committee of Nigeria Football Federation has reviewed downwards the registration fees Clubs will have to pay to take part in this year’s Federation Cup competition.
While the male Clubs will part with the sum of N70,000 to be part of this year’s competition, the female Clubs will pay only the sum of N50,000.
NFF’s Ag. Director of Competitions, Ruth David confirmed to thenff.com that the NFF Board opted to review the fees downwards in order to encourage many more Clubs to participate in this year’s competition in both the men’s and women’s categories.
While the registration fees are down, the programme itself is unchanged from what was officially communicated to the Football Association in the 36 States and the FCT. Registration of Clubs will hold over a fortnight between 16th – 30th January, while submission of completed players' forms for production of licenses will be done 31st January – 6th February.
This year’s Federation Cup competition in the various States and the FCT will take place between 18th February and 19th March, with the States and the FCT expected to submit the names of their two representatives in the national competition to the NFF by 20th March.
Dates for the playoff matches, the National Draws and the different stages of the national competition will be determined in due course.
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