Sweden Coach Rejects Falcon’s Job

Though the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has not made it official to hire Sweden coach, Pia Sundhage has said she is not ready to handle Nigeria’s senior female team, the Super Falcons.

Sundhage has declared she is “not good enough” to handle African champions as her team sweat to know if they will qualify for the knockout rounds of the Women’s World Cup.

AfricanFootball.com first reported that top officials of the NFF are considering Sundhage to take over the Falcons after they crashed without trace at the World Cup in Canada under the watch of Edwin Okon.

But after seeing her team pick three points from as many matches, scoring four goals and conceding four, former coach of the United States Sundhage noted that she may not be up to take up the chance to coach any Nigerian team right now.

“You know what, today I don’t think I am good enough to coach in Nigeria,” she stated.

•Coach Pia Sundhage of Sweden at the ongoing Women’s World Cup in Canada

Pia Sundhage led her team to a 3-3 draw with Nigeria in their first group game before holding USA to a goalless draw and forcing Australia to a 1-1 draw in the final group game. They would now have to await the outcome of matches in Groups E and F to know their fate at the World Cup.

Meanwhile, Vice President of the NFF, Barrister Seyi Akinwumi has urged Nigerians not to see the Super Falcons ouster from the group stage of the ongoing FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada as a disappointment.

Akinwumi said that the Nigerian squad are still some distance off from being world beaters, and so it will not be that easy to get favourable results against some of the household names in women football.

Akinwunmi noted that the girls did well to have been able to stand their ground against their more illustrious opponents in the competition.

“We have a team with good players, we conquered Africa but have not dominated the world stage and we know this. The American team had players with over a decade of experience at that level but our young girls stood up to them and I think for that we can’t put them down

“They’ve done quite well, to be honest but we also understand that everybody must work harder to get to the level we want,” Akinwunmi, who is also the chairman of Lagos FA.