The First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, along with other high-ranking government officials, will be present at the send-off dinner for the Super Falcons before the team departs for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Beginning on July 20 and running until August 20, the FIFA Women’s World Cup is set to take place over the course of a period of one month.
The National Football Federation’s Head of Communications, Ademola Olajire, announced in a statement that was released on Thursday that the dinner that is being hosted by the country’s football organisation will take place on Saturday at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.
We are anticipating the presence of Ismaila Abubakar, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Sports and Youth Development, as well as other high-ranking sports authorities.
Along with the rank and file of the NFF, which will be led by President Ibrahim Musa Gusau and General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi, “a good number of the team as well as technical and administrative officials are expected to be there.”
“The event, which will take place at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, will additionally attract corporate chieftains, members of the diplomatic corps, and a variety of football stakeholders.
“The nine-time African champions will leave the shores of Nigeria on Sunday for a 15-day camping programme in Australia,” observed Olajire. “Before they come into camp for the event commencing on July 20 and ending on August 20, they will participate in this camping programme.”
The finals begin for Nigeria on July 21 with a match against Canada at Melbourne’s Rectangular Stadium. Following that, they will play matches against Australia and the Republic of Ireland at Lang Park in Brisbane on July 27 and July 31, respectively.
According to NAN, the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals in Australia and New Zealand in 2023 will have the same number of teams, 32, as did the men’s finals in Qatar last year. This will make it the largest tournament in the history of the tournament.
In addition to being the first event of its kind, it is also the first-ever FIFA senior competition to be hosted by two nations in two distinct confederations. Australia and New Zealand will serve as hosts, with Australia representing the Asian confederation and New Zealand representing the Oceania confederation, respectively.
At the age of 40, Onome Ebi, the captain of the Nigerian team, will be one of the oldest players competing in the event. She will share this distinction with Marta of Brazil and Christine Sinclair of Canada.
These three ladies will be competing in their sixth FIFA Women’s World Cup amongst the three of them.
According to the National Football Federation, the Australian High Commission will organise a dinner for the Falcons twenty-four hours before the Send-Forth event, which will take place at the Transcorp Hilton. The dinner will be a courtesy of the Agricultural High Commissioner, Her Excellency Leanne Johnston.
According to NAN, the Super Falcons will be competing against Australia, Canada, and the Republic of Ireland in Group ‘B’ of the tournament.
At earlier iterations of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, Nigeria’s women’s national team competed against both Canada and Australia.
The best that Canada has been able to do against Nigeria at the World Cup is a tie (3-3), which they achieved in 1995, and a loss (1-0), which they suffered in 2011.
The 2015 FIFA World Cup match between Nigeria and Australia resulted in a 2-0 victory for Australia against Nigeria. The match took place in Nigeria.