Nigeria Content Online

With the World Cup
fever well and truly over (my daughter was the first to declare how
happy she is at having her mother back), transfer news across various
European clubs is now the main activity guaranteed to give the
obligatory dose of football.

Having previously
intended to jot down my thoughts on the transfer excitement, and
perhaps elicit some more sympathy from readers as the long wait for the
start of the European football season continues, I’ve had to do a
complete about-turn. Reading through the sports pages in NEXT, I came
across the story of the female under-20 football team, the Falconets.
The main thrust of the article was about the disparity in match bonuses
in female soccer. The Falconets are currently playing in the FIFA
Women’s U-20 World Cup being held in Germany and have drawn their first
game (coming from behind to do this) and won the second.. It was
therefore more than a little surprising to read that the match bonus
for winning is a measly $500.

Now don’t get me
wrong, playing for your national team is not about making money. It
should be for the pride and fulfilment each player feels at
representing the nation; apparently the Super Eagles were offered
$30,000 for winning a match in the just concluded World Cup. On the
side of football administration, this speaks volumes about the attitude
to female football. Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as the last
census reported, the ratio of male to female in the population is
approximately 1:1. It is therefore just as likely that as many young
girls as boys will be interested in going into sports. Is this the
NFF’s way of encouraging young girls who want a career in football? Is
this Nigeria’s way of encouraging girls who want to carve out a
sporting career? How ironic that Nigeria’s first Olympic gold medal was
won by a woman, Chioma Ajunwa.

Encouraging the ladies

Every day there are
reports about the rot in Nigerian football, with very little changing
as the years go by. This just adds to the whole sorry tale. This
disparity between men and women’s football cannot be justified. There’s
been an obscene amount spent on the Super Eagles’ World Cup campaign,
with unfortunately absolutely nothing to show for it. It has been said
that football is traditionally a men’s sport and it would be hard for
women to break into it or to gain the same following. The fact that
some have obviously done so puts paid to that. If against the odds, the
Falconets can continue to qualify for the World Cup and more often than
not, make it into the knockout stages, surely they ought to be
encouraged. Who could blame them if they decide to adopt new
nationalities for the purpose of better exposure, training and medical
facilities? We have to ask questions of the NFF and what they plan to
do to change the current state of affairs in female football.

Speaking of the NFF, the executive committee only has one female
member, as shown on their website. The only other female listed is the
Head of Administration. It would be hard to convince anyone that the
Head of Administration is the change agent needed to build female
football in Nigeria. And change is what is desperately needed: the
contribution that women players make to the game has to be recognised
and more support needs to be given to the game. Attitudes need to
change. With more support, the game can improve and followership will
also improve. In the meantime, we continue to cheer our Falconets on to
greater glory.