Former chief coach of Super Falcons, Kadiri Ikhana has shed light on why the senior women’s national team he led to the African Women’s Championship in Equatorial Guinea failed to retain the trophy and the reason why he resigned his appointment. He told RICHARD JIDEAKA that the host country's antics and absence of two key players frustrated his team from doing well…
How did you feel leading the Super Falcons to relinquish the AWC title without a fight in Equatorial Guinea?
Well, I felt very sad and disappointed that we failed to retain the cup as we planned to do from the beginning. A lot of factors actually affected the team from performing at its optimal best. To show how devastated I felt after we lost in the semi-final to South Africa, I took a decision to resign and which I did as soon as we returned to Nigeria.
Coach, were you forced to resign or you did that out of your own volition considering the fact that your contract said you should at least reach the semi- final of the championship?
But you know me very well that nobody can force me out. I resigned because I failed to meet the target I set for myself. My target was to win the trophy but having surprisingly lost in the semi-final, I just knew it was all over for me.
You mentioned that so many factors were responsible for the Super Falcons’ poor outing in anAfrican championships; can you divulge some of these factors?
Yes, one of them was that 10 days to our departure on a training tour of Ghana, the NFF technical department with the directive from the technical committee chairman released two of my key attackers to a foreign club without my consent. I protested this action which I regarded as a deliberate attempt to frustrate and weaken the team. I expressed my bitterness when I went to defend the list before the technical committee members but I was assured that the club would release the players for the competition which they never did. The players in question- Desire Oparanozie and Francisca Ordega, are by all standard players who could have turned things around for the team. When it became obvious that I would not have them for the championship, I had to quickly draft in some new players as replacements.
Another factor was the late arrival of foreign-based players to join the team. Five of the foreign-based players invited for the AWC were only able to join us three days to our departure to Ghana and the sixth player, Perpetua Nkwocha, joined us on the day of our departure to Ghana. This short period did not allow us to evaluate their fitness level; psychological and mental preparedness but having registered them based on their pedigree, we had to make do with them.
Could there be any other factor that led to your dismal outing at the AWC?
Of course, the major factor why we lost was the antics of the host and organizers. It was as if they had mapped out strategies to frustrate us and this began as soon as we landed at the Malabo airport on Thursday October 25. They made things difficult for us and easy for other teams. They succeeded because at the end, our players lost concentration and became frustrated. Some of them even fell sick and could not play some games. They made us stay for about five hours at the airport before we could board our flights to and from Malabo and Bata. They provided inadequate rooms for the team and some of us had to stay in different hotels. Can you imagine that for us to eat we had to move from one hotel to another three times in a day and none of these took nothing less than an hour. We were made to shuttle between Bata and Malabo. We traveled more than all other teams during the championship.
Back to your preparation for the championship, would you say it was adequate and that the NFF played their role very well?
To be fair to the federation, they gave us the best of preparation any team can ask of. The team lost because we fell to the antics of the hosts and despite all the efforts made by Dr. Sanusi Mohammed and others to lift the girls’ spirit, nothing came out of it.
What is the way forward for Nigerian women’s football?
The NFF should settle the feud in the women’s league and ensure that the league becomes competitive and attractive. Again, they should use the age grade teams for developmental competitions and not the ‘you must qualify’ idea that is ruining the progress of the senior team. I mean players must not be allowed to play any age grade competition twice and any player in the senior team must not be allowed to return to the junior team no matter how young she may be. I think, we still have what it takes to rule Africa again if the whole of next year is used to build a new team since there would be no competition next year. I also think that the so- called foreign based players should be made to join camp at least two weeks before any major competition or we forget about them. From my observation, it seems that they either do not play football regularly over there or that the standard of the league they play is too low.
Would you give female football another try if given the opportunity?
In my resignation letter, I thanked the NFF president for the opportunity given me to serve the country and I hope to serve again if they find me suitable for any job. So, I would be ready to coach the girls again because I was able to instill discipline in the team and I know I can do better than I did last time.
How did you feel leading the Super Falcons to relinquish the AWC title without a fight in Equatorial Guinea?
Well, I felt very sad and disappointed that we failed to retain the cup as we planned to do from the beginning. A lot of factors actually affected the team from performing at its optimal best. To show how devastated I felt after we lost in the semi-final to South Africa, I took a decision to resign and which I did as soon as we returned to Nigeria.
Coach, were you forced to resign or you did that out of your own volition considering the fact that your contract said you should at least reach the semi- final of the championship?
But you know me very well that nobody can force me out. I resigned because I failed to meet the target I set for myself. My target was to win the trophy but having surprisingly lost in the semi-final, I just knew it was all over for me.
You mentioned that so many factors were responsible for the Super Falcons’ poor outing in anAfrican championships; can you divulge some of these factors?
Yes, one of them was that 10 days to our departure on a training tour of Ghana, the NFF technical department with the directive from the technical committee chairman released two of my key attackers to a foreign club without my consent. I protested this action which I regarded as a deliberate attempt to frustrate and weaken the team. I expressed my bitterness when I went to defend the list before the technical committee members but I was assured that the club would release the players for the competition which they never did. The players in question- Desire Oparanozie and Francisca Ordega, are by all standard players who could have turned things around for the team. When it became obvious that I would not have them for the championship, I had to quickly draft in some new players as replacements.
Another factor was the late arrival of foreign-based players to join the team. Five of the foreign-based players invited for the AWC were only able to join us three days to our departure to Ghana and the sixth player, Perpetua Nkwocha, joined us on the day of our departure to Ghana. This short period did not allow us to evaluate their fitness level; psychological and mental preparedness but having registered them based on their pedigree, we had to make do with them.
Could there be any other factor that led to your dismal outing at the AWC?
Of course, the major factor why we lost was the antics of the host and organizers. It was as if they had mapped out strategies to frustrate us and this began as soon as we landed at the Malabo airport on Thursday October 25. They made things difficult for us and easy for other teams. They succeeded because at the end, our players lost concentration and became frustrated. Some of them even fell sick and could not play some games. They made us stay for about five hours at the airport before we could board our flights to and from Malabo and Bata. They provided inadequate rooms for the team and some of us had to stay in different hotels. Can you imagine that for us to eat we had to move from one hotel to another three times in a day and none of these took nothing less than an hour. We were made to shuttle between Bata and Malabo. We traveled more than all other teams during the championship.
Back to your preparation for the championship, would you say it was adequate and that the NFF played their role very well?
To be fair to the federation, they gave us the best of preparation any team can ask of. The team lost because we fell to the antics of the hosts and despite all the efforts made by Dr. Sanusi Mohammed and others to lift the girls’ spirit, nothing came out of it.
What is the way forward for Nigerian women’s football?
The NFF should settle the feud in the women’s league and ensure that the league becomes competitive and attractive. Again, they should use the age grade teams for developmental competitions and not the ‘you must qualify’ idea that is ruining the progress of the senior team. I mean players must not be allowed to play any age grade competition twice and any player in the senior team must not be allowed to return to the junior team no matter how young she may be. I think, we still have what it takes to rule Africa again if the whole of next year is used to build a new team since there would be no competition next year. I also think that the so- called foreign based players should be made to join camp at least two weeks before any major competition or we forget about them. From my observation, it seems that they either do not play football regularly over there or that the standard of the league they play is too low.
Would you give female football another try if given the opportunity?
In my resignation letter, I thanked the NFF president for the opportunity given me to serve the country and I hope to serve again if they find me suitable for any job. So, I would be ready to coach the girls again because I was able to instill discipline in the team and I know I can do better than I did last time.
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