As the last women’s football international window in 2025 begins on Monday (today), 10-time African champions, the Super Falcons, are at risk of missing the opportunity to regroup, as the Nigeria Football Federation is still making frantic efforts to organise friendly matches for the team, The PUNCH reports.
The international break runs from Monday, November 24, to Tuesday, December 2, allowing countries to play at least two matches.
While Nigeria is yet to organise any official match for the window, Ghana have booked a date with England on December 2.
Other countries like Zambia, Kenya and South Africa have also lined up friendly matches.
When asked if the 10-time WAFCON champions will play any friendlies during the upcoming window, the NFF President said, “We are checking.”
Our correspondent also gathered that the NFF has had a proposed friendly turned down ahead of the window.
According to Nigeria Football, the setback occurred when a national association that had already reached and signed a match agreement with Nigeria abruptly withdrew.
The report added that the decision was triggered by the opposing team’s head coach, who reportedly preferred to face what he considered a “lesser opponent” instead of the reigning African champions.
The Super Falcons are billed to defend their WAFCON title in Morocco next year. They clinched their ticket to the next tournament with a 3-1 aggregate win over the Benin Republic in October.
Although CAF has yet to announce a date for the 2026 WAFCON, the tournament is also expected to serve as a qualifier for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
If the WAFCON doesn’t hold in March 2026, that would be the next window for the Falcons to regroup, should they eventually miss this break.
Aside from their unbeaten run at the WAFCON in July, the Super Falcons have only played three other matches in 2025.
As of the August release, the Super Falcons are still ranked number one in Africa and 36th in the world. The next FIFA ranking will be released on December 11.
Meanwhile, the NFF President at the end of 2024 said the era of inadequate preparations for the various national teams is over.
“The era of Nigerian teams arriving at major championships just to participate is gone. Our objective now is to ensure that our teams can strongly contend for honours anywhere, and that can only be done by preparing the teams well ahead of qualifiers and competitions,” Gusau said in 2024.
