IEG's Annual Conference March 8-11, 2009.Register

Female coaches have come of age - Okunwa
Notwithstanding the current drumming for expatriate coaches to handle the nation’s female teams, Falconets assistant coach okunwa Gift Showemimo, said female coaches in the land have come of age and should be considered  suitable coaches for the female sides.
Showemimo who resisted all entreaties to comment on the appropriateness for an expatriate coach for the female teams told vandykesport.com in Lagos that time has come for Nigeria to follow the trend in other lands and hand over the fortune of the female teams to qualified female coaches.
“Female coaches have come of age and should be given the chance to lead. At the just concluded FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Chile there were a lot of female coaches in charge of other countries respective team, only Nigeria came with a large number of male coaches.
“I think the female coaches are better equipped and placed to understand the female players, especially their body chemistries, if a female player is in her monthly period she can relate better with a female coach.
“Besides, many of our female coaches are sound and have acquired all it takes to give our female teams the new direction. Some of them played this game and quite current with the trends in today’s football.”
On why the Falconets fell before the French team in the quarter finals of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile, the ex-international who admitted that Nigeria has players to play in the final, however blamed some technical decision of the bench to the team’s failure to hold onto their early lead over France.
“We have the potential to play ourselves into the final, but when all hopes point to that direction, things collapsed, the chief coach Daniel Evumena for reason best known to him allowed some players who should be replaced to continue playing.
“Going into the quarter finals against France, everybody was okay, we thought we will beat France, we were 2 – 1 up, in the second half things changed and the coach failed to respond. Although, majority of the players are new, only a few were experienced, still we could have won the encounter against France if suitable changes were done at the right time,” she said.
It will be recalled that the nation’s campaigner won their group’s opener against New Zealand, drew with England and defeated host, Chile to top the group with seven points behind the English team.