Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Monday hosted and splashed gifts on the triumphant national women’s soccer 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 hosts Morocco in Saturday’s thrilling final was applauded by Tinubu and many in Nigeria, a soccer-loving nation where passion and hard work often triumphs over institutional challenges.
The continental success papers over the mismanagement of the women’s team by the nation’s authorities, analysts said. The success of the country had come in spite of the country.
Photo: Reuters
“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,” Lagos-based soccer analyst Solace Chukwu said.
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 tournament 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 nations in protest.
Women’s teams are affected the most, partly because of how women have always been viewed in Nigerian society, said Oluwashina Okeleji, a sport analyst with a focus on Africa.
“The argument from the [Nigerian] federation is that the men bring more money than the women, but the truth is the women bring most prestige, honours and titles to Nigeria,” Okeleji said.
A spokesperson for the Nigeria Football Federation, soccer’s governing body in the nation, declined to respond to the allegations.
The Nigerian women’s team has exercised near-total dominance in African soccer, which is partly credited to a head-start in the women’s game. Nigeria created the first soccer league for women in 1978, years before their counterparts on the continent.
However, the gains have not catapulted the team to similar achievements on the global stage in what analysts say is a failure of the authorities to capitalize on that early advantage.
“The men’s team is huge generally within the administration of Nigerian football as the cash cow,” Chukwu said.
The gifts now promised by the president, including money and property, have not convinced the supporters.
“This one-time payment and apartment does not make any sense. For what? What they need is investment in the facilities, the staff and payment. The lack of investment in women’s football is one of the reasons why it is not as high quality as the men’s,” said Funmi Obasa, a fan in Abuja who follows the women’s team.
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