AS WFCO REVOLT LOOMS LARGE!

Desire Oparanozie in action against Cameroon defender during the last CAF Women Africa Championship in South Africa.

An impending ill wind of revolt by Women Football Club Owners (WFCO) in the country looms, as the body is seriously strategising on a showdown with the Alhaji Aminu Maigari-led Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) board.

A tip of what is about to happen was displayed in Abuja last Thursday, when the club owners, invited by NFF for the draws to usher in the 2010/11 Women Professional League season, refused to allow the event to hold with a strong warning that there would be no league until the problems affecting women league in the country are resolved.

Women Soccer reliably learnt that the club owners were angry concerning the way the NFF is plotting to bring on board a representative for the women football without the consent of the practitioners in the game.

It was discovered that the NFF wanted to alter the electoral guidelines at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) to favour its cronies. So the club owners insist that the NFF board should not impose people who have no inkling about women football on them.

It was learnt that the presence of NFF General Secretary, Amodu Musa and other management members of the Glasshouse could not dissuade them from their stance.

The body is warming up for a protest march at the forthcoming AGM in Uyo if its demands are not meet. The body has threatened to withhold all its players from going to the Falcons' camp for the preparations for Germany 2011 World Cup.

Speaking with Women Soccer on phone, Chairman of WFCO Association, Alhaji Tajudeen Odusanya, lamented that despite the height Nigerian women had attained in both African and world football, the NFF has no concrete plan on how to improve women soccer in the country.

According to him, those running football in Nigeria have conscripted the domestic league to the dustbin and club owners have been carrying the burden without any help from the NFF.

'There is going to be women's revolt, and it is going to be worse than what happened with the NPL.

'The NFF is plotting to change the electoral guidelines so that they will compensate their friends with positions in the women department.

'We have made it clear to them that they will not, and should not impose anybody on us. We will elect our representatives by ourselves.'

In the same vein, Delta Queens' Chief Coach, Daniel Evumena, decried the absence of sponsors for the women league. He insisted that any attempt to bring in any person that does not have any knowledge of women game would be vehemently resisted by the club owners and their coaches.

'We are not asking for too much; all we want is for the NFF to allow us do our elections, where we will elect our own people.

'We want to dialogue with the authorities and if they fail to see reasons with us, we might be forced to pull off our players from the national team's camp.

'I don't think it would be wise for the girls to play at the World Cup and the domestic league, which is where they are discovered is in comatose.

'I am aware that the AGM has been postponed, which to us, is a blessing in disguise because it will afford us an ample opportunity to strategise and push home our demands.'