With WAFCON 2026 beginning in Morocco in July, the Super Falcons needed this April international window to build match sharpness. Instead, they have been left without a fixture after Cape Verde and Togo withdrew, while the NFF has arranged four matches for the Super Eagles across May and June despite the men’s team facing no imminent major tournament.
The numbers tell an uncomfortable story. The Super Falcons, Africa’s most successful women’s national team with ten continental titles, will begin their WAFCON 2026 defence in Morocco in July. They played their last competitive fixture in early March against Cameroon. This April international window came and went without a single match after Cape Verde and Togo, originally scheduled as opponents, withdrew. The NFF failed to secure replacement fixtures despite having advance notice that the window was coming. Meanwhile, the same federation has organised four matches for the Super Eagles in May and June: the Unity Cup in London followed by friendlies against Portugal and Poland. The men’s team is not preparing for any major tournament. The WAFCON defence starts in less than three months. The Falcons have nothing. New Bet9ja users following women’s African football can find the Bet9ja’s YOHAIG welcome bonus ahead of the tournament.
The Scale of the Disparity
What makes this situation particularly hard to defend is the context in which it sits. Other nations that did not even qualify for WAFCON are playing matches this April through the FIFA Series. Kenya’s Harambee Starlets faced Australia. Malawi, one of the Super Falcons’ own Group C opponents in Morocco, played the Matildas and gained valuable high-level experience, even in a heavy defeat. Nigeria’s WAFCON rivals are actively accumulating match minutes against quality opposition, while the defending champions sit idle. The last time the Falcons played a genuinely challenging international was a fixture against Portugal last year. The March matches against Cameroon provided some preparation, but a month-long gap followed by no April action at a critical pre-tournament phase is a preparation failure with potential consequences on the pitch. Bet9ja users backing the Super Falcons at WAFCON can access the Bet9ja promotion code for a welcome bonus at FootballInNigeria.com.ng.
A Pattern, Not an Accident
Critics have noted that the Falcons’ preparation issues did not begin this month. The team has historically faced payment disputes, bonus row delays and scheduling neglect that would be unacceptable if applied to the men’s programme. The wider structural question being asked is whether the NFF is capable of treating the Falcons as a football programme of genuine priority rather than a fixture to be managed when convenient. The ten WAFCON titles the Falcons have accumulated represent the most successful run by any national team, men’s or women’s, in the entire history of African football. If that record does not command the institutional support needed to arrange four friendly matches in an April window, two months before a tournament where Nigeria are defending champions, then the gap between what the Super Falcons deserve and what they receive from the NFF is wider than any scoreline. Nigerian women’s football supporters can follow the WAFCON build-up and use the Nigeria’s top Bet9ja code at bet9japromotioncode.com.ng before the tournament begins.
📌 Did You Know?
- The Super Falcons’ ten Women’s Africa Cup of Nations titles make them the most decorated team in the entire history of African football, surpassing even the men’s national teams when measured purely by continental championship titles.
- WAFCON 2026 will be held in Morocco from July 25 to August 16, meaning the Falcons will have approximately three months between their last confirmed friendly in early March and the start of the tournament, a preparation window shorter than ideal for a title defence.
- Kenya’s Harambee Starlets, who are playing in the FIFA Series despite not qualifying for WAFCON 2026, demonstrates how the FIFA international calendar provides competitive opportunities for national teams outside the top tier of the continent’s football pyramid.
- The Unity Cup, in which the Super Eagles are scheduled to play in May, is a tournament traditionally held in London and designed to give Nigeria competitive international minutes in a friendly environment ahead of future qualification campaigns.
- Nigeria’s Super Falcons last played a match against a team from outside Africa in 2025, when they faced Portugal in a friendly, reflecting the limited access the programme has had to high-level European or South American opposition in recent years.
- Cape Verde’s women’s national team, one of the withdrawn opponents, had not previously beaten the Super Falcons in competitive or friendly football, which makes their reluctance to face Nigeria in an April friendly an unusual reversal of the expected dynamic between the two programmes.
- Head coach Justine Madugu, who has overseen the Super Falcons’ recent continental success, will need to find alternative preparation solutions before the WAFCON squad assembles in Morocco if the NFF cannot secure additional fixtures in the weeks before the tournament.
