By Harry Awurumibe, Africa’s No.1 Women Football Journalist
….Continued from yesterday
Dethroned African Queens…Super Falcons Class of 2022 lost their crown in Morocco earlier this year.
While Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc and Pepsi were the first corporate sponsors of the Super Falcons, Nigeria Women’s Football Premier League and Nigeria Women’s Challenge Cup (FA Cup) competitions for four years, Cadbury Nigeria and Julius Berger were the first corporate sponsors to donate cash to NFA (now NFF) in January 1991 to start closed camping for the pioneer set of players invited to Super Falcons camp at Surulere Games Village, Lagos for the first-ever international match between Nigeria and Ghana Black Queens in February 16, 1991.
With the above mentioned overwhelming support, women’s football grew in leaps and bound in the 1990s through the early 2000s and the result rubbed off on the huge progress the country made in the game which could not be matched by any other country in Africa until the South Africans and Moroccans took over the scene.
Also, during the period under review, the women’s football league in Nigeria backed by the sponsorship funds was well structured and it ran full circle on home and away for many years under the supervision of the football federation
with clubs traveling across Nigeria to honour their away matches especially in far places like Maiduguri, Borno state; Yola, Adamawa and Mangu in Jos, Plateau state.
Mr. Iain Nelson. ..Former National Marketing Director of Seven-Up Bottling Co.Plc/PepsiCo who brought massive sponsorship to NFA for Super Falcons and Nigeria Women’s Football League in 1990s and 2000s.
For example, the then National Marketing Manager of Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc, Mr. Iain Nelson, a United Kingdom-born marketing guru, ensured that the Pepsi sponsorship money was disbursed directly to the clubs while NFF received quarterly allocations for administrative running costs while also equipping the Office of Head of Women’s Football Department of the NFF with modern office communication gadgets for easy contacts with the sponsors.
The company instituted a reward model that captured the contributions of the clubs, players, officials and other women’s football stakeholders like members of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) as reporters who distinguished themselves in women’s football reportage were rewarded monthly along others in the monthly Pepsi Best Women’s Football Reporter Awards which this reporter won on Two Occasions as *Best Women’s Football Writer in Nigeria in 1998 and 2000* respectively.
However, all these activations have been concerned to the history books as neither the Super Falcons nor the women’s football leaque have had sponsors for many years now as both have been operating without any sponsors till date. Those who are managing the nations football at every level have failed to find sponsors for the women’s football leaque and women’s national teams including Falconets and Flamingos since the Pepsi sponsorship ended over ten years ago.
This is even as many African countries especially South Africa, Morocco and Egypt have made deliberate efforts to invest heavily on women’s football development, a situation which have seen these nations overtake Nigeria in both club and national teams successes in the recent CAF women’s football competitions.
For example, Morocco has invested so much in women’s football in the past few years as the current President of Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), Fouzi Lekjaa in furtherance to the development of women’s football signed convention to uplift the women’s game in the Kingdom in August 2020.
The project saw FRMF announced the launch of a women’s First and Second Division Professional Women’s League from 2021 after signing a new convention with the National Women’s League (NWL) to take women’s football to a new level.
Apart from the two tiers of women’s league football, FRMF also established a National U-17 Championship in addition to Regional Championships for different youth categories across Morocco.
Also, the new plan aims at supporting the management of women’s football clubs in Morocco on the administrative and financial level through training and support provided by the Technical Directorate and the FRMF’s Department of Finance.
Finally, to ensure that the vision did not only succeed in the short term but yields bountiful fruits in the long run, the Federation announced that women’s football will be entitled to funding of up to $130,000 for the top flight women’s league clubs and $86,000 for the Second Division to support the remuneration of players and technical staff on a monthly basis since 2021.
“This is an important step to allow female talents to practice this popular sport in good conditions and to give them the opportunity to start and pursue their professional career,” President Lekjaa said after signing the Convention in 2020.
True to the vision of Lekjaa, Morocco has seen a huge return on investment sooner than envisaged as the country hosted the CAF 2022 WAFCON and won Silver medal in addition to qualifying for their maiden FIFA Women’s World Cup final in Australia and New Zealand.
Only last Sunday, Moroccan Women’s Football League (WFL) champions,
ASFAR club thrashed defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa 4-0 to win the 2nd CAF Women’s Champions League trophy on home soil which is another victory for FRMF President for his foresight to invest in women’s football.
In the same vein, South Africa’s senior women’s football team, Banyana Banyana have huge sponsorship partnership with SASOL as the country’s energy and chemical company involved in mining of coal and converting it into synthetic fuel and chemicals, entered into multi-million Rands sponsorship deal since 2009.
Return on Investment. ..South Africa’s Banyana Banyana Head Coach Desiree Ellis holding CAF WAFCON trophy won in Morocco
The company which is like our Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation now Limited (NNPC) recently rewarded the Banyana Banyana with a whopping R5,550,000.00 bonus for winning the WAFCON trophy for the first time in their history. This is outside the R15 million bonus the South African government gave to the women’s team through the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa.
Earlier, the South Africa Football Association (SAFA) through its President Dr. Danny Jordaan had deposited the sum of R9.2 million bonus the team was promised by SAFA before the start of the WAFCON tournament in Morocco in the team’s dedicated accounts unlike what happens in Nigeria.
In spite of the massive financial incentives from the government, SAFA and SASOL have renewed its sponsorship deal to continue to support the women’s team and league till 2025 just as the winning coach of Banyana Banyana Desiree Ellis has demanded that more sponsors get involved in the women’s game.
“Look, Sasol is the sponsor of Banyana Banyana and the Sasol League but that is not enough, we need more sponsors to come on board to make sure we take it to another level, to make sure that clubs are able to pay their players.
“Look at Morrocco, they have a two-tier professional league, so they have really invested, which is the result of them being in the final. If you want to move with these teams, these countries that are investing, you have got to invest as well, ” Ellis said.
Sadly, the case is quite different in Nigeria as the country’s women’s national teams and clubs live from hand to mouth just as closing of multi-million sponsorship deals by the federation, league organisers and management of clubs are alien to Nigeria’s football culture.
Lack of sponsorships for the women’s football at national team level and women’s football league across the three tiers- NWFL (Premier), Professional and Nationwide (Amateur)-have ensured that the development and growth of women’s football have stalled for a long time in Nigeria.
Gearing Up for Work…Ibrahim Musa Gusua, New NFF President is expected to revive the struggling Super Falcons and Nigeria Women’s Football League.
For the above reasons, keen followers of women’s football development in the country and across the world can attest that Nigeria has totally lost grip of her top position in Africa and may no longer compete favourably with South Africa and Morocco, countries that have invested and still investing massively in women’s football. Talents alone can no longer bring massive successes to Nigeria as witnessed in the 1990s and 2000s.
For the above reasons, keen followers of women’s football development in the country and across the world can attest that Nigeria has totally lost grip of her top position in Africa and may no longer compete favourably with South Africa and Morocco, countries that have invested and still investing massively in women’s football.
The future is blink for the growth of women’s football in Nigeria and without a deliberate efforts to invest heavily in the development of the game like the two African countries mentioned above, Nigeria’s women’s football teams and clubs may no longer win the WAFCON trophy and the CAF Women’s Champions League Cup respectively.
This is the crux of the matter.
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