Super Falcons Absence At Tokyo Olympics Is A Disaster –Williams

SUNDAY AKINTOYE

Former Super Falcons player, Francisca Adiawoomi Williams, has described the team’s absence at this year’s Olympics in Tokyo as a national disaster and unpardonable.

Williams, who was dropped from 1991 FIFA Women World Cup in China in 1991, said that she was shocked and speechless  when she heard that the Falcons have  been eliminated from the Olympic Games qualifiers.

“That the Super Falcons failed to qualify for the Olympics is unpardonable and national disgrace. We played well at the last FIFA World Cup and nobody believed that the team would not be at the Summer Olympics this year. It is a serious setback and this showed that we are not consistent in our game,” she said.

The Cross River State-born footballer said this is the time for Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to look into grassroots female football and replace unfit players in the Falcons. She said the NFF should quickly employ a new coach, who will take the team to the next CAF Women Nations Cup.

It would be recalled that the Falcons were eliminated in the Olympic qualifiers by the Ivorian ladies after playing a barren draw in the first leg in Abidjan against Les Femelles Elephantes of Cote d’Ivoire, and played 1-1 in Lagos in the second leg last year.

This is the third successive edition of the Olympic Games that the Super Falcons will be failing to qualify for, having also missed out from playing at the London 2012 and Rio Olympics in 2016 in Brazil.