Dennerby’s exit cost Super Falcons Olympics ticket – Ebi

Super Falcons defender Onome Ebi has said Nigeria’s failure to book a ticket to the 2020 Olympics women’s football event could be as a result of the exit of coach Thomas Dennerby.

With less than two weeks to a crucial qualifier against Ivory Coast, Dennerby walked out on his contract with the Falcons over claims of interference from the federation. The 60-year-old returned to his home country Sweden, where he sent in his resignation letter.

Chris Danjuma was named as Dennerby’s replacement, losing to the Ivorians on away goal rule after playing a 1-1 draw at the Agege Stadium. This was after both teams had played goalless in the first leg in Ivory Coast.

Ebi believes things would have been better if the change did not happen.

“It’s so sad because we were looking forward to playing at the Olympics because we‘ve not qualified for the last two editions and we really focused on qualifying but unfortunately, we did not qualify,” Ebi told The PUNCH.

“The change of the coach might have been one of the factors to our non-qualification because he has been with the team for quite a long time and he understands how to get what he wants from the team. The change of the coach with two weeks to a crucial game like that could have been partly a cause.