Former Nigeria international Ifeanyi Udeze says he can accept the Super Falcons losing WAFCON, but not missing out on a World Cup ticket for the first time in the tournament’s history.
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Former Nigeria international Ifeanyi Udeze has described the Super Falcons’ failure to qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup as an insult, Complete Sports reports.
Nigeria’s World Cup hopes were ended on Thursday when they lost 2-1 to South Africa’s Banyana Banyana in the intercontinental play-off, a defeat that means the Super Falcons will miss the tournament for the first time since its inaugural edition in 1991.
“It Seems There’s No Unity Among Them”
Speaking on Brila FM, Udeze said missing out on the World Cup ticket was what truly pained him, distinguishing it from the earlier WAFCON exit which he was more willing to accept. He said he didn’t fault the team for failing to win WAFCON itself, but that not picking up the World Cup ticket was a separate and more painful failure.
Udeze went further in diagnosing what went wrong, saying he didn’t believe the players lacked quality but suggested the squad went into WAFCON overconfident and appeared to lack unity, a factor he felt contributed to the disappointing campaign.
What The Defeat Means
South Africa’s win sends them into the Inter-Confederation Play Off, where they will continue competing for one of three remaining World Cup slots, following Ghana’s earlier win over Côte d’Ivoire on Thursday that secured the same route for the Black Queens. Morocco, Cameroon, Algeria and debutants Malawi have already secured automatic qualification as WAFCON semi finalists, with Malawi and Cameroon due to contest this year’s WAFCON final. Notably, both finalists eliminated Nigeria along the way, with Malawi beating the Super Falcons in the group stage and Cameroon knocking them out in the quarter-finals.
