The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has provided preparation updates on the country’s U17 and U20 women’s teams ahead of their Women’s World Cup qualifying campaigns next month.
Nigeria participated in the U20 Women’s World Cup in France, where they crashed out in Round of 16 in 2018, but failed to qualify for the first time in the U17 competition in the same year in Uruguay.
Since then, the U17 women’s side is yet to regroup since crashing out of the qualifier two years ago, while the U20 team are yet to return to camp since winning the African Games last August.
This year, the Flamingos, will in the first round of the Caf U17 Women’s World Cup qualifier in February, face Guinea, who bounced out Guinea-Bissau after an 8-0 triumph on aggregate.
On the other hand, the Falconets will in the first round of the U20 Women’s World Cup qualifier in March, take on either Burkina Faso or Gambia, with the former holding a 3-2 first-leg advantage.
With barely a month to the qualifiers, an NFF top official disclosed that a new set of coaches will be named for the women’s teams with camping activities expected to commence in the coming days.
“We [Nigeria Football Federation] have made recommendations on the coaches for the women’s national teams,” the NFF technical director Bitrus Bewarang said on Monday.
“We are meeting with the NFF technical committee to get their approval of the appointments. The technical department, with a group of coaches, has been working to get players within the age bracket.
“I can confirm that the teams will resume their camping preparations on or before Wednesday, January 29 this week.”
A triumph over Guinea will see Nigeria face either Ghana or Liberia in the final round for a place at the 2020 U17 Women’s World Cup scheduled to be held in India from November 2 to 21.
While a win over Burkina Faso or Gambia could see the country take on Cameroon in the second round and later Morocco or Algeria in the final round for a spot at the U20 Women’s World Cup.
