Erico hails Falcons on latest FIFA rankings, advises NFF to invest in women football

Former Super Eagles’ Assistant Coach, Joe Erico, has advised the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to look for ways to help the Super Falcons maintain their position as the best women national team in Africa.

He urged the federation to find a way of strengthening the women league and other competitions, saying strong competitions would help the coaches to produce quality teams.

Expressing his delight that the Super Falcons retained their number one position in Africa in the latest FIFA rankings, Erico noted that the era of the Nigeria women national team dominating the continent might end if urgent measures were not taken to get a credible coach for the team and also put modalities in place to ensure the welfare of the players were attractive.

Erico said the Super Falcons over the years have dominated African football because of the girls’ commitment and hunger to make names for themselves, which eventually earned most of them lucrative contracts overseas.

“The Super Falcons retaining the number one spot in Africa and the 38th position in the world in the latest FIFA rankings is impressive. But if things are not put right from this point, Nigeria might be witnessing the last era of the Super Falcons’ dominance.

“You should be aware that the Super Falcons retaining the number one spot in Africa is because they are still African champions. Their performance of getting to the second round of the Women World Cup earned them a step higher in the latest rankings.

“After the World Cup, the team has been facing challenges of players’ unpaid allowances, the foreign coach resigning out of frustration and the Falcons not getting the 2020 Olympics ticket.

“Up till this moment, the team has not gotten a substantive coach. From my own point, I think the foreign coach, Thomas Dennerby, did a good job with the girls during his tenure with the team.
“For things to move in the right direction, the NFF should investigate the reasons the coach left so that they can correct the deficiency in the team before a new coach takes over.

“For the future of the Falcons to be bright, the NFF should also look at the positive and negative sides of the past progress of the team in a bid to create a framework that would enable the women national team not only to dominate Africa, but also excel at world competitions in the nearest future,” he said.