I want to bring back glamour and money to women football: Omidiran

Question and answer session with a member of the house committee on sports, who doubles as NFF’s head of women football committee, Hon. Ayo Omidiran.

·         I want to bring back glamour and money to women football

·         Says Flamingos were lucky to come out of Addis Ababa alive

·         Prefers Florence Omagbemi to Randy Waldrum

·         Set world cup quarter-finals target for Super Eagles.

By Bunmi Blair.

QUESTION: Some few weeks ago, the NFF appointed you the head of their women football committee. As a serving Nigeria House of Representatives member, how do you intend to perform both duties?

REPLY: The responsibilities are well known to me. I have been on the seat before, so, I know what is expected of me. I also know I have a lot to add to the system. Like bringing back the passion for women football and hopefully bring money to the game, so that people can start to appreciate us. I will do my best to make sure the national teams do better than before.

QUESTION; Some people also think the NFF gave you the appointment so that they can use you in their quest to get the “NFF football bill” passed by the house of rep. and that they will dump you when they are done.

REPLY: They did not tell me they want to use me. They told me they sat down and wanted to bring the glamour in women football back, they wanted an experienced person to handle the national teams and all of them decided that they have to bring me back. So, I accepted as a mark of humility and it is all about service as far as I am concerned. Moreover, there is no way they can tie my hands. As a member of the house committee on sports, I have been helping not only with football but sports generally. So, I can only do more, but they cannot tie my hands. I have my own mind and I do things the way I think it should be done.

QUESTION: You were with the Flamingos in Ethiopia for the FIFA U-17 Women world cup qualifier, Nigerians were expecting the girls to win but they were only able to get a draw. What went wrong?

REPLY: Thank God that we are back and alive. The altitude really affects the girls, they could hardly breathe. It took the grace of God for them to hold their stamina until the end of the game. We scored first, but we got tired. At half time, we had to teach the girls how to get in more air into their lungs. We also told them to take it easy to avoid much energy loss. We should thank God we came out alive.

QUESTION: Looking ahead of the second leg, do you think Nigeria can get a favorable result?

REPLY: We believe that having secured a point in Addis Ababa, we should be able to win convincingly in the second leg.

 Nigeria will likely play Cameroon in the next round if they both qualify (Cameroon defeated Algeria 4-1 in the first leg played in Algiers). Are you worried about this possibility?

REPLY: Laughs! Laughs! Laughs! Laughs!   Nobody should get agitated because we do not have the same opponent. The Ethiopian girls played very well, they were technically sound and we learned that more than half of the team have been together since 2015. They had better possession, so people should not compare our results with that of Cameroon. Who says if we had played Algeria, we wouldn’t have defeated them 8-0? People should just take it easy and have confidence. No need to be agitated, when we get to the bridge we will surely cross it.

Question: The Super Falcons are yet to get a coach a year after winning their 10^th AWC title. The NFF say they want to hire American, Randy Waldrum, do you have a say in this?

REPLY: Well, I am leaving the technical matters to the technical people. But from what I heard, the NFF has almost signed a coach. They have not signed the man, but he has already left his present club and in the next one week we should be expecting him in Nigeria, to be unveiled. I do not know the people that will assist him, just like I said, I’m leaving the technical matters to the technical people.

Question: Some Nigerians believe Florence Omagbmi who won the AWC last year should have got the nod being a Nigerian. What is your take on this?

  

REPLY: Yeah! I gave Florence my support a hundred percent, left to me, she would still be handling the team. But it is not up to me to bring her back.

QUESTION; The Super Falcons have been inactive since they won the AWC, what have you done about it?

REPLY: Yes! I have been reading about it and I spoke with the NFF president who has promised to do something about it. Fortunately, he told me that they already secured a friendly with France for the Super Falcons. I told him it is a welcomed development, but we will like to have more quality friendly games.

Question; The Super Eagles have been drawn in Group D of the 2018 world cup, alongside, Argentina, Croatia, and Iceland. What target do you think the government should set for the team?

REPLY: We are all happy the Super Eagles qualified, but I do not believe in an easy group or hard group, I think anybody that has qualified to go to the world cup must be a good team. However, I believed that with the momentum of the Super Eagles right now we should be able to qualify from that group. Having been in the second round before, any improvement on that will be a job well done. Hopefully, I am expecting the Super Eagles to get to the quarter-final.

Photo credit; google.