Falcons gaffer submits 30 strong squad for Sierra Leone, Evelyn Nwabuoku tops the list

Super Falcons head coach, Edwin Okon has reportedly submitted a 30-player list to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) technical committee for the two-legged African Women Championship qualifying match against Sierra Leone.


Falcons will host their West African neighbours on February 14 at the Abuja National Stadium while they will head to Freetown, Sierra Leone a fortnight later for the reverse fixture.

The winners of the encounter will be a game away from qualifying for the 2014 biennial continent football fiesta holding in Namibia which doubles as qualifiers for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.

The top three finishers at the Namibia 2014 AWC will automatically qualify to represent Africa in Canada.

Okon, who initially opted to bring in 45 players to camp in preparation for the crucial AWC tie, said he has to key into the programme of the football house by scaling down the number of invited players.

“I have submitted 30 names to the NFF technical committee for the African Women Championship qualifying match against Sierra Leone.

“I thought I could have brought in 45 players, at least, to give me a wider window to take a second look at the players since there is the possibility of drop in form as the season is at rest at the moment.

“But the NFF technical committee's directive has corrected that, as we’ll now work with the 30-player squad when we resume on January 6.

“However, the elimination by substitution approach will still apply as any player who fails to measure up will make way for the hungry and willing ones and substituted immediately.

“The encounter against Sierra Leone on February 14 in Abuja is crucial and we must work very hard to obtain a comfortable result so as to make the second leg very easy.

“We want to qualify for the AWC in Namibia as well as excel to win a World Cup spot, so the work is enormous and only the best will be given the final nod,” said the Rivers Angels tactician to a reliable source.

Winners of the of the two-legged matches are most likely would square-up with the winners of the tie between Rwanda and Kenya in May and June for a final spot in the 2014 Namibia African Women Championship football event, which Equatorial Guinea are defending champions.

The 2012 edition of the competition saw Nigeria ending up as 4th place finishers, the worst in history of the nation's women team.