Veteran coach, Godwin Izilien will take the Nigerian female national team to the African women championship, nigeriasports.com can report. The championship proper which kickstarts in South Africa as from September 15-October 4, is the 4th edition of the Womens version of the Africa nations cup with the Falcons going into the championship as defending champions and favourites.
According to the chairperson of the female football development committee of the NFA, Ayo Omidiran, the Nigerian team will be lead by the Benin born tactician. "Izilien will lead the Falcons to South Africa. It will not in anyway affect his job at the U-17 level because we have carefully studied the calendar and we discovered that it will not in anyway clash with his duties as the coach of our female team", she told nigeriasports.com exclusively in Lagos over the weekend.
When asked if the Falcons stand a chance at the bi-annual championship considering the fact that the team will be missing some key players due to Olympic duties, the proprietress of Omidiran babes revealed that the Falcons chances are as bright as ever. "We still remains the best in Africa and right now we are hoping to have a blend of young and old players to evolve a new Falcons. There is nothing to lose sleep about concerning our title defence", she assured.
It would be recalled that coach Godwin Izilien, a former NNB and Dolphins coach was first appointed coach of the golden Eaglets before getting seconded to the female team but the club owner turned administrator still insists that the coach can successfully prosecute both assignments. "His assistants will hold forth for him while on the Falcons assignment and he will still have ample time to return to the junior team before their qualifiers start in October", she assured.
Omidiran conclusively appealed to Nigerians to come out to support the Nigerian under-19 team in their bid to qualify for the world cup in Thailand, later in the year.
"We need the total support of Nigerians in our bid to qualify for the U-19 world cup a second time. We only need a draw to qualify and our goal is to represent Africa well at the mundial so as to earn another slot just as we did at the senior world cup in 1999.
You won't be able to add comments, unless you are logged in
Not Registered yet ? Click here to Register.
