The Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports Development Sunday Dare has congratulated Nigeria’s senior women national football team, the Super Falcons for picking a ticket to next year’s FIFA Women World Cup finals in Australia and New Zealand.
The Falcons picked one of the four automatic World Cup tickets available at the African Women Cup of Nations tournament by defeating bitter rivals Cameroon 1-0 in the quarterfinals decided on Thursday.
Dare while celebrating the feat, urged the team to now go all out and ‘add the icing to the cake’ by winning the tournament for the 10th time.
“You(Super Falcons) have never missed out of any FIFA Women World Cup finals. I celebrate you for keeping to your high standards by qualifying for next year’s event in Australia and New Zealand.
“This is heartwarming and you have made yourselves and Nigerians proud. I congratulate you, your coaches, the NFF and all Nigerians who have shown good will and support to the team.
“While celebrating this world cup ticket, let me urge to do a little more. Win your next game and the one after it and you will be the queens of African football for the tenth time,” Dare said.
Up next for the Super Falcons will be the hosts, Morocco in the semifinals of the competition.
Super Falcons the 15th team to qualify for 2023 FIFA World Cup
Following Thursday’s night victory, Nigeria became the 15th team to qualify for the 9th FIFA Women’s World Cup finals, to be staged in Australia and New Zealand 20th July – 20th August next year.
Hosts Australia (with five venues) and New Zealand (four venues), as well as China, Korea Republic, Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, United States of America, Morocco and Zambia are the other teams.
The 5th and 6th –placed teams at the ongoing tournament in Morocco will have another shot at qualifying for the World Cup, as they join eight other teams for a Playoff Tournament early next year.
Nigeria is one of only six teams, among them USA, Germany, Brazil and Japan, to have played in every edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals since the championship was launched in China in 1991.