NFF set to fill Ikhana's shoes
by Sammy Wejinya 22 November 2012, 11:02
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will soon reach a decision on the vacant position in the national women’s football team.
Kadiri Ikhana resigned as head coach of the Super Falcons on November 12 following a dismal outing at the 2012 African Women’s Championships (AWC) in Equatorial Guinea.
The Super Falcons finished the competition in 4th place following successive 1-0 defeats against South Africa (semifinals) and Cameroon (third place playoffs) in the tournament.
It was Nigeria’s worst outing in the history of the competition.
First vice president of the NFF, Mike Umeh said a decision over the appointment of a new coach would likely be reached at the end of the year.
“First things first, I want to apologise for the failure of the Super Falcons at the tournament. However, we must realize that out of eight editions of the competition, we have emerged champions on six occasions so we cannot blame God that we did not win it this time around,” Umeh told supersport.com.
Umeh also spoke on the federation's plans to name a replacement for Ikhana.
“Like you know, this is not a unilateral decision. The board will meet and we will proceed from there. We expect to meet before the Christmas celebration and then we will proceed from there,” he said.
Umeh further revealed that a member of Ikhana’s backroom staff could be elevated to become the new coach of the team.
“Only Kadiri Ikhana resigned as member of the technical crew so we could decide to elevate another member of the technical crew but ultimately, that is a decision of the board,” he declared.
Justin Madugu, Bala Mohammed, Charity Enwerem and Rita Nwadike are the present members of the Super Falcons technical crew.
