Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have given the nod for the country’s female national team, Super Falcons and under-17 squad, Golden Eaglets to continue camping, despite a cancellation of their major competitions previously billed for 2021, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although the Eaglets still have the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations on the cards, they will no longer have the U-17 World Cup to prosecute, after FIFA cancelled the Cadet Mundial and that for the U20s, while Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) had earlier put off the 2021 African Women’s Cup of Nations.
This means the Eaglets and Falcons will no longer have major championships to look up to in 2021, but the NFF’s executive committee decided at their last meeting of 2020 on Monday that both teams will keep training, as alternative programmes will be arranged for them.
Consequently, the Eaglets will still go on to play at the West African Football Union (WAFU) zone-B qualifiers for the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations, while the Falcons will subsequently feature at an invitational competition in Turkey later in the year.
This was much was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, which the NFF’s communications department disclosed was called to ‘deliberate on important issues in Nigerian Football.’
The communiqué stated in part: “While appreciating the COVID-19 pandemic ravages on businesses worldwide, the Executive Committee resolved, in view of shrinking funds and the reality that the Government will definitely be inclined to allocate more resources to other critical sectors of the economy.
“To hold its partners and sponsors to full compliance with terms and conditions of their contract agreements, while also pledging that the NFF will always do everything possible to give them optimum mileage and exposure at all its matches, events, programmes, activities and publications.
“As a way of getting the Senior Women National Team, Super Falcons, busy in a period of long inactivity occasioned by the postponement of the 12th edition of the Women Africa Cup of Nations to year 2022, the Executive Committee approved a proposal by its Technical and Development Sub-Committee for the team to participate in a tournament in Turkey and two-match tour of Morocco in February 2021.
“Despite the cancellation of the 2021 FIFA U17 World Cup finals by the world football –governing body, the Executive Committee resolved to allow the U17 Boys National Team, Golden Eaglets, to participate in the upcoming WAFU B Tournament with a view to qualifying for the 2021 Africa U17 Cup of Nations, as it sees the youth tournaments as developmental programmes for the purpose of discovering talents for the senior teams.
“As a result of the unfortunate second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the planned physical inauguration of the newly –constituted NFF Sub-Committees could not hold. In the event, a symbolic inauguration was performed by the NFF President. He pledged that the Sub-Committees will be even more empowered to function adequately in line with their terms of reference.
“Chairman of the Women Football Committee, Alhaja Hulayat Ayo Omidiran responded on behalf of all the Chairmen of the Sub-Committees, thanking the Executive Committee for the opportunity to serve and pledging that the members would work assiduously for the development and improvement of Nigerian Football.
“The Chairmen of the Sub-Committees have been mandated to swing into action immediately. The Executive Committee approved the Financial Statement of the Federation for the year 2020, as well as the proposed Budget of the sum of N5,625,942,790.00 for the year 2021.”
