Morocco 2022 Race: Madugu, Okon Join Super Falcons’ Technical Crew

OMOTAYO KOLAWOLE PETER

The Nigeria Football Federation on Tuesday absorbed Coaches Justin Madugu and Edwin Okon into the technical crew of the Senior Women National Team, Super Falcons, in line with a recent resolve to rejig the team’s technical group.

In a brief meeting presided over by President of the NFF, Mr Amaju Melvin Pinnick at the Federation’s headquarters in Abuja, Madugu was designated the new 1^st Assistant Coach of the Super Falcons while Edwin Okon, Chief Coach of Rivers Angels FC, will be Chief Scout for the squad.

Head Coach Randy Waldrum keeps his position. Coach Ann Chiejine will be 2^nd Assistant Coach while Wemimo Matthew moves to the U20 team, Falconets.

“I want to see a Super Falcons’ squad that is feared by the opposition not only in Africa but all over the world. I trust that you two (Madugu and Okon) will bring some positive difference to our golden Super Falcons. I don’t want to see our Falcons struggling against teams in Africa when we should actually be going toe-to-toe with the best teams in the world.

“From now, we will scout for more players at home and abroad, particularly at home, and we will start organizing camps for the Super Falcons on the home front even before the overseas-based players arrive. We must make the effort and the investment to have a stronger squad that will continue to do Nigeria proud.”

Also present were NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi; Technical Director, Mr Austin Eguavoen; Director of Communications, Mr Ademola Olajire; Ag. Director of Competitions, Ms Ruth David and; Head of International, Mr Dayo Enebi Achor.

Following a 2-0 defeat of the Black Queens of Ghana in the first leg of the second round of the Women AFCON qualifiers, the Falcons lost 0-1 to the Queens in Accra to scrape through to the final round on 2-1 aggregate.

The victory meant the Falcons will take on the Lady Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire in the final round. The Elephants, who eliminated the Falcons from the race to the Tokyo Olympics on the away goal rule, blitzed past their counterparts from the Niger Republic 20-0 on aggregate.

Nigeria will host the first leg in the second week of February 2022, with the return leg in Abidjan a week later.

In a related development, the President of NFF, Mr Pinnick has approved the opening of the Falconets’ camp from this weekend for their second-round fixture against their counterparts from Congo in December. This is in connection with the African qualifying race for the 2022 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup slated for Costa Rica.

The Congolese will host the first leg on 5^th December, with the return leg in Lagos on 16^th December.