Lionesses and Falcons
The Super Falcons' reign as Africa’s number one may soon become history as Cameroon now have a good chance of overtaking Nigeria in the FIFA Women’s World Ranking.
The Falcons have dominated Africa from 1991, winning the first seven Africa Women’s Cup of Nations tournaments – in 1991, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 – and winning another two in the last four, making it a record nine titles out of 11 African women’s championships.
Though they have not been able to take their dominance beyond Africa – having their best performance in seven World Cup appearances in 1999 when they reached the quarterfinal – they have managed to remain the best women’s national team in Africa.
But with recent developments, which includes the Falcons’ loss to Equatorial Guinea and their consequent failure to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Brazil, this may soon change.
The Cameroonian women’s national team, the Lionesses, who surprisingly made it to the Round of 16 at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, which was their first appearance, moved up 10 places to 43rd in the world and second in Africa in the latest FIFA ranking released in July – their best ranking ever.
Though they lost 2-1 to Japan in the group stage and 1-0 to China in the Round of 16, Cameroon gained 87 points, rising from 1455 to 1542 points in the FIFA ranking,for beating Ecuador 6-0 and Switzerland 2-1. Before that World Cup Ecuador were ranked 48th and Switzerland were ranked 19th.
On the other hand, Falcons, who lost 2-0 to Australia and 1-0 to USA, gained 26 points from 1633 to 1659 points and moved up four places to 29th for drawing 3-3 with Sweden, who were ranked 5th before that World Cup.
As a result, the Falcons are only 117 points above the Lionesses, who are already closing the gap.
According to the FIFA Women’s World Ranking Methodology, the key factors taken into consideration are result of the match; home versus away, or neutral ground; importance of the match; and difference in Women’s World Ranking between the teams.
Generally, a team gains considerable amount of points when they defeat or draw against a more highly-ranked team, and conversely, if a team is beaten by an opponent that is lower in FIFA ranking, that team loses considerable amount of points.
This means that by losing 3-2 on aggregate to Equatorial Guinea, who are ranked 55th, and failing to qualify for the Olympics, the Falcons have already lost some points. Whereas Cameroon, who eliminated Ghana, who are ranked 52nd, to qualify for the Olympics, have gained some points.
In addition, the Lionesses have the opportunity to beat some highly-ranked teams at the Olympics next year and gain enough points to be ahead of the Falcons in subsequent FIFA ranking.
The performance of the teams in the All Africa Games would also count. Former Falcons coach, Ismaila Mabo, told our correspondent during the week that he would not be surprised if Cameroon deposes Nigeria as Africa’s best in women’s football.
Mabo lamented that the performance of the Falcons has been declining recently, while some other African teams such as Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea have been improving.
“They (Cameroon) are flying higher than the Super Falcons and now they are going to the Olympics where Nigeria will not be participating. Right from the outset, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, and to some extent South Africa, have been leading women’s football in the Africa,” Mabo said.
“If Cameroon, Ghana or South Africa overtake Nigeria, it will not be surprising because of the dwindling performance of the Super Falcons. If any of these women footballing nations, including Equatorial Guinea, who have become a team to reckon with, overtake Nigeria soon, I won’t be surprised.
“We have to be more careful and we should be thinking of the way forward and plan to encourage the Super Falcons to do better and to regain our lost glory as far as women’s football is concerned in Africa. Right now, you will agree with me that we don’t know where we are going,” he said.
Mabo added that the Nigeria Football Federation should focus on the Falcons and give them incentives to motivate and encourage them the way previous leadership of the football body did.
However, Falcons forward, Stella Mbachu, said she does not believe Cameroon will overtake Nigeria anytime soon, but noted that there is the need for Nigeria to work harder to remain number one in African women’s football.
“Before any country will overtake us, it will be very difficult because their leagues are not as strong as our league. Our league is bigger than that of Cameroon. They may overtake us when they have a better league, maybe in three of four years from now,” Mbachu said.
“The truth is that other African countries are targeting to overtake Nigeria. When they have a match against Nigeria, they put in their best. So we need to work harder and make our league stronger for us to maintain the gap. If our league is strong, we will continue to produce good players, but if our league is going down and their leagues are going up, then they will overtake us very soon.”
