Ikhana Resigns From Falcons’ Post

Despite reports to the fact that Nigeria’s Super Falcons coach, Kadiri Ikhana has resigned his post after leading the national team to their worst outing at the just concluded 8th African Women Championship, AWC in Equatorial Guinea, the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) yesterday said that the  coach, has not officially resigned.

NFA’s Director of Technical, Emmanuel Ikpeme, told newsmen in Abuja, that the body has not received any letter from the coach to that regard.

Ikhana had on Monday said that he resigned his position as head coach of the Nigerian senior women football team, the Super Falcons.

The resignation came after the team’s poor performance at the 2012 African Women Championship (AWC) in Equatorial Guinea.

“ I want to assume that he is still the coach because if he has indeed resigned, the letter should be addressed to the federation.

“Since we have not received the letter, we are still working on the premise that he has not yet resigned.

Ikhana had said, while speaking to newsmen in Abuja on Monday, “I resigned because my personal target was to lift the trophy.”

“I let the country down, so I deeply apologise and take full responsibility for the disappointment in Equatorial Guinea.

“This failure informed my decision to quit the stage.”

Ikhana, who was speaking to local media in Abuja, had met the target set for him in his contract with the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) but the 60-year-old felt that was not enough.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is expected to make an official statement on Ikhana this week.

In April, Ikhana signed a four-year deal, replacing Eucharia Uche, whose contract was not renewed after last year’s Fifa Womens World Cup in Germany.

He was charged with reviving the fortunes of the Super Falcons following their failure to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

Ikhana was set the task of reaching the semi-finals of both the 2012 African Women’s Championship and the 2015 Fifa Women’s World Cup finals in Canada, as well as qualification for the 2015 All Africa games in Mozambique and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.