Aisha Buhari Cup ‘Very Good Development’ – Ex-Super Falcons Coach
Rivers Angels Manager and Ex-Super Falcons coach, Edwin Okon, says the Aisha Buhari International Women Tournament dubbed the Aisha Buhari Cup is a very good development for women’s football.
Okon believes all the teams in the competition have equal chances of going home with the trophy, adding, “there is no pushover among the sides.”
Describing the competition as timely and good for women football development, Okon added that team selection in favour of the domestic players would give the tournament its biggest catch.
“Every team prepares well for this kind of tournament. It will be wrong for us to consider Mali a pushover, I do not think so, and nobody should go to sleep because Mali is on the table,” Okon said. “Morocco is a country we do not know much about and for a team you do not know, it becomes risky to sleep in one’s preparation.”
“We must give adequate and due respect to all our opponents. For us, we need players who will be ready to die on the field of play defending the honour and name of the country and the reason I will canvass for increased presence of the NWFL products in our team selection.”
“Aisha Buhari Cup is a very good development; the biggest thing that’s happening to women’s football in Nigeria and Africa. I wholeheartedly support its developmental messages and commend the initiators,” Okon added.
“I had one or two conversations with the Ghanaian coach at the recent CAF Women Champions League qualifiers in Abidjan and they are coming in a big way for the tournament. He said they are going to beef up the squad with quality players and that the country’s vice president is interested in the team.”
“I can tell you for free that the Ghanaian side that will be coming will be a very good one and possibly a hard nut to crack at the tournament,” Okon concluded.
Chidi Nwoke/The Guardian.
