The Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) has approved the promotion of Delta Babes and three other NWFL Nationwide teams to the NWFL Championship against the earlier two publicised by the league board The Trumpet gathered.
The increase was announced today by the General Co-ordinator of the NWFL Nationwide, Sir Joe Amene while addressing the four teams that qualified for the final round of the Nationwide League.
In a statement to the teams which was made available to newsmen by NWFL media, Amene after the last two matches played at the School of Health Technology, Benin City, noted that the approval for the promotion of the four teams was given by the Chairperson of the Nigeria Women Football League, Aisha Falode, with the support of other board members of the NWFL, after watching all the group matches within the A1, A2, B1, and B2.
Amene stressed that the Chairperson and the members were marvelled by the standard of play of all the teams and particularly the last four teams – Imo Strikers, Lakeside Queens of Lagos, Prince Kazeem Eletu Queens of Lagos, and Delta Babes.
He said, “The high standard of play was the main reason the four teams were promoted. None of the teams, coaches, or league officials had the premonition that four teams would qualify for the NWFL Championship. But they were only lifted by their excellent standard of play and maturity displayed by all the 16 teams that participated in the league.
“Last season, a total of eight teams were promoted to the NWFL Championship from Nationwide. Four each from the Ijebu Ode and Abuja centres. The standard at both Ijebu Ode and Abuja wasn’t as high as what we experienced at the Western Boys Stadium, Ikpoba Hill, and the School of Health Technology, Okha, Benin City this year.
“With the high standard of play displayed by the players of various teams, I am so proud of the players as scouts of top women’s football clubs in Nigeria have picked great talented players to sign them on for their clubs.
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“Three out of the four that got promoted won all matches played, while the second-placed teams missed out narrowly after very highly competitive games. We had a player from Imo Strikers, Harmony Achiefulu, who scored 11 goals out of a total of 15 goals scored by her team in the League. These goals included three hat tricks by Harmony.
“Lakeside Queens of Lagos scored 12 goals and didn’t concede any goal. Imo Strikers scored 15 goals and conceded only one against Ubakala Queens of Abia, while Prince Kazeem Eletu scored six goals and conceded just one goal,” Amene added.
Amene continued: “We had other brilliant players in other clubs: like Daniella Fagbenro, the gangling player from FC Niger Amazons, Blessing Amadi from Delta Babes, Franca Asooto from Lakeside Queens, and Cynthia Mega. These players can easily play in the NWFL Premiership League.
The decision to promote four NWFL Nationwide teams to the Championship was a collective one to also beef up the number of teams for the professional cadre, which is the NWFL Championship,” Amene concluded.
