Mismanagement, poor financing, corruption: Nigerian women’s team rises beyond challenges to win Wafcon 2024 title

The president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, organized and splashes gifts on the triumphant national women’s football team, which overcame poor preparations and payments to win the record-expanding 10th Ladies Africa Cup of Nations title.

The comeback of the Super Falcons 3-2 victory over host Morocco in the exciting final of Saturday was welcomed by Tinubu and many in Nigeria, a football-loving nation where passion and hard work often triumphs about institutional challenges.

The continental success, analysts, articles about the mismanagement of the women’s team by the authorities of the country. The success of the country had come despite the country.

«They have been able to dominate, although the Nigerian football authorities do not put so much financing, care, attention and planning in the way in which the national team of women is run,» Solace Chukwu, a Lagos -based football analyst, told the Associated Press.

The team had been owing competition bonuses for years, once resulting in a training boycott in 2022. Even when the triumph on the way to the final in Morocco, the backlog of payments was only approved by the presidents days for Saturday’s final. The Falcons could also not hold competitiveness -friendly competitions, and it was said that their training kits were not available.

It is a common problem in Nigeria, where sports competitions are often chased by issues of under -financing, corruption and mism management that have led to high -profile scandals, which makes athletes to represent other countries.

Women’s teams are most affected, partly because of how women have always been viewed in Nigerian society, according to Oluwashina Okeleji, a sports analyst with a focus on Africa.

«The argument of the (Nigerian) federation is that the men bring more money than women, but the truth is that the women bring the most prestige, honor and titles to Nigeria,» said Okeleji.

A spokesperson for the Nigeria Football Federation, the governing football body of the country, refused to respond to the allegations.

The Nigerian women’s team has practiced almost total dominance in African football, which is partly credited to a lead in the women’s match. Nigeria created the first football competition for women in 1978, years for their counterparts on the continent.

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However, the profits have not catapulted the team to similar performance on the worldwide stage in what analysts say is a failure of the authorities to take advantage of this early benefit.

«The men’s team is generally in general within the administration of Nigerian football as the cow,» said Chukwu.

The gifts that are now promised by the president, including money and real estate, have not convinced the fans.

«This one -off payment and the apartment makes no sense. For what? What they need is investments in the facilities, the staff and the payment. The lack of investments in women’s football is one of the reasons why it is not as high as the gentlemen,» Funmi Obasa, a football fan in Abuja that the women’s team follows, AP said.