In February 2018, the hopes of the Flamingoes, Nigeria’s Under-17 national women’s team, to qualify for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay were unfortunately extinguished after a 1-1 draw in the second leg of the doubleheader qualifiers in Yaounde, Cameroon. It was unfortunate because the Flamingoes did not lose any of the pair of qualifiers against Cameroon. However, having drawn both games, with a 2-2 draw in the first leg clash in Benin City, the away-goals rule came into play to determine which team qualified with the 3-3 aggregate score over the two legs. As a consequence, the Nigerian girls were beaten to the ticket by their Cameroonian counterparts. It was equal parts painful and regrettable that they came so far and so close yet failed to earn qualification to the Uruguay-hosted tournament.
The depth of the team’s pain was expressed by defender Precious Christopher in a post-match interview where she revealed that the team felt hard done by some of the decisions of the referee while conceding that the defeat was a grievous experience.
She finished on a positive note of hopeful determination that, availed with another opportunity, the young girls will deliver. It was a new, yet unflattering chapter in Nigeria’s participation in age-range competitions as the U-17 level. Before the Flamingos failure to reach Uruguay, Nigeria had qualified for all past editions the U-17 women’s World Cup. They featured at the inaugural 2008 competition in New Zealand, the 2010 tournament in Trinidad and Tobago, the 2012 edition in Azerbaijan, the Costa Rica-hosted Cup competition in 2014 and the 2016 World Cup in Jordan.
Unlike their male compatriots, who have won no fewer than five U-17 FIFA World Cup competitions to hold the record as the country with the most titles in that age range, the Flamingos have been far less successful. In those five previous appearances, they had only gone as far as making it through the group stages only to be sent packing in the first game of the knockout stages. They reached this quarter-final mark in three consecutive competitions in 2010, 2012 and 2014 to a point where it seemed the ladies were jinxed to not see a semi-final berth. It got even worse in 2018 as they failed to even picked up a ticket to the event in the very first instance.
That was why their insistence to improve at the next opportunity after failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup that was held from November 13 to December 1 was poignant even if a different squad of players and coaching crew based on the age-range nature of the competition and the reorganisation of the country’s coaching personnel.
However, the next edition that was billed for 2020 was affected by COVID-19 concerns, which FIFA had to address.
Stakeholders voiced further significant concerns in a number of areas about the hosting of age-group tournaments set for 2020 as part of FIFA’s extended engagement process and the “health and safety first” stance the football body adopted. These worries included, among other things, difficulties with age-group team preparation times and the multiple hurdles that the pandemic presented in concluding the continental qualification competitions. The FIFA-Confederations COVID-19 Working Group then suggested that the two women’s youth tournaments be cancelled for 2020 and that the hosting rights for the 2022 editions be made available to the nations that were scheduled to host the 2020 editions after carefully considering the feedback received from the stakeholders and the inability to further postpone these tournaments.
It meant that the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in India was pushed to this year, which, after additional consultation between FIFA and the respective host member associations regarding the 2022 editions of the tournaments, the Bureau of the Council approved the bid to postpone. After that, India faced its own challenges because over in the South Asian country trouble was brewing and putting the World Cup hosts in jeopardy. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) was suspended by FIFA on August 16 because of undue influence from third parties, which constitutes a serious violation of FIFA’s Statutes.
The suspension was going to be lifted once an order to set up a committee of administrators to assume the powers of the AIFF Executive Committee had been repealed and the AIFF administration regained full control of the AIFF’s daily affairs.
It was FIFA’s reaction to decision of India’s highest court to disband the All India Football Federation (AIFF) in May, which it followed with the appointment of a three-member committee to govern the sport. FIFA’s stance is hinged on its culture of non-interference by government in football adminstration.
FIFA therefore viewed India’s court-appointed administrators’ committee having a voice in how Indian football is handled as outside meddling and claimed that having an equal number of prominent athletes and state association delegates in the electoral college was “not a prudent idea.” In efforts to ameliorate the effects of the ban, FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) met Indian football stakeholders and laid down a roadmap for the AIFF to change its rules by the end of July and hold elections by 15 September.
Fortunately, on Friday, August 26, FIFA lifted the ban imposed on the AIFF after the Supreme Court terminated the mandate of the Committee of Administrators (CoA), clearing the decks for India to host the Women’s U-17 World Cup in October. It was a positive development for the Flamingos, who though were held to a goalless draw by Ethiopia in the second leg of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers played on Saturday, June 4, inside the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja, redeemed the pledge of the 2018 set of Flamingos and qualified for the World Cup with a 1-0 lead on aggregate over both legs. It was a more sensational qualifying run as they played six qualifying games and remained unbeaten during that time, scoring 15 goals without ever conceding. They therefore qualified as one of three teams to represent Africa at the October competition.
In the two friendly matches of in preparation for the tournament, the Flamingoes defeated Galatasaray Ladies 3-1 in Kocaeli days before losing by the exact same scoreline against the Fenerbahce Ladies. They initially got a sense of how tough the world cup was going to be in the loss to Germany in their first match after opening the scoring to finish 2-1 at the Pandit Jawaharlal Stadium. The Bankole Olowookere’s team rallied to defeat New Zealand 4-0 in the second Group B match with goals from Amina Bello, Miracle Usani, Taiwo Afolabi, and Edidiong Etim before defeating Chile 2-1 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar to secure a spot in the quarter-finals.
The fear of the jinx returned with the indomitable US in front of a semi-final ticket. It seemed history was going to repeat itself when America dominated proceedings until the quarter-finals required penalty shootouts to resolve and the Flamingos created a piece of history for themselves by outscoring America to book a semi-final place for the first time ever in the country’s history.
They were celebrated for the unprecedented achievement but the next hurdle was in front of them with Colombia standing before a place in the final for them to claim a first trophy for the female age-range team but it was a bridge too far as they painfully lost to Colombia via penalty shootouts last Wednesday in Margao, Goa. Although penalty specialist goalkeeper Chikamso Jiwuaka stopped one spot kick as she did against the US, Omamuzo Edafe, who had scored two penalties against the Americans, during the game and during the determining shootout, missed her kick to send the shootout to sudden death which resulted in Colombia’s victory after Comfort Folorunsho’s kick was saved by the Colombian goalkeeper Luisa Agudelo.
A place in the third-place match against Germany was scant consolation for Olowookere’s team but they have gone one step farther than any of their predecessors had ever managed. It is a small step by itself but in the grand scheme of things, it is a good forecast for the future of female football in Nigeria.
Although recent results have not favoured the country’s senior women’s national football team, the Super Falcons, they remain the continent’s most successful team. The goal of the age-range competitions as the U-17 World Cup is the development of players in preparation for responsibilities of the senior team. The promise of the Sports Ministry and the Football Federation to groom these girls as they progress in age, talent and experience portends positively for the growth of the female game in Nigeria and continued dominance on the continent and beyond. There is also the promise of another set of Flamingos to target to better the finish that Olowookere’s team managed.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
