FC Robo Queens of Lagos founder, Emmanuel Osahon has raised an allegation that strong but discriminatory external influences affected the outcome of this year’s award for African Women’s Footballer of The Year, Sports247 reports.
While hinting that one of his club’s products, Rasheedat Ajibade, should have won the award, since she was the best player and winning captain at this year’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, Osahon inferred that people with vested interests made a wrong choice.
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Osahon, who is also his club’s chairman and head coach, disclosed further that seeing how the award eluded Ajibade affected him and his players emotionally.
He averred, “A lot of things are always wrong in African football. All the so-called big shots will use us as a steppingstone and, at the end of the day, they will dump us. The way they run things amazes me.”
While downplaying how another Falcons’ striker, Esther Okoronkwo was also tipped to win the award, Osahon charged officials of Nigeria Women’s Football League (NWFL) to step up their efforts in terms of providing better conditions for players.
Osahon added, “A lot of people were also saying Esther Okoronkwo was supposed to be favoured, but I am not really concerned about that.
“For me, I am more concerned about what the NWFL will do about our players. They need to look at a lot of things. We have people there who are meant to work for us.”
He concluded with a charge to Nigeria’s football top shots to use their positions to put pressure on people that matter and swing crucial decisions in favour of the country’s players.
“Let us learn to do things right. We also need to start looking at our status keenly … so that people will not use us and, at the end of the day, dump us.
“That’s just what we should do. For now, I’m not happy and all my girls are not happy. Our camp is quiet like a graveyard,” Osahon revealed.
