Bayana Bayana of South Africa coach, Desiree Ellis says her side will not under estimate any of the teams at the Aisha Buhari Cup.
She said this while reacting to the draw for the first edition of the tournament which pitted South Africa with Cameroon and Ghana in Group B.
“Morocco is doing well with their youth football development. We saw how far the Malian side went during the last AWCON as well as Cameroon as one of the power houses in women’s football. We have to be on top of our game. We have the regional Tournaments like the WAFU, CECAFA UNIFFAC, and COSAFA. This is tournament having six top countries. We can’t ask for anything more than to thank the Nigeria First Lady for this fantastic initiatives. I am sure that it can only go from strength to strength and next time it will be much bigger than this one. We are happy to be part of something like this.
“I think the timing falls drying the FIFA dates to have the best available players apart from injuries and maybe the unavailability of some players. This tournament is coming at a time when we need the competition. We should not under estimate any of the countries that will be participating. Each and every countries try to step up with various programs and leagues.”
Desire opined that the competition can get better from the next edition after this one as she expects more countries to participate.
She also states that South Africa will use it to prepare for its AWCON Qualifiers against Mozambique.
She said: “We couldn’t have asked for a better competition than this. I think this will improve the game on the African continent. I can assure you that with the next edition, many teams will want to take part more than the six countries. Most African countries are not a active during non Olympics, AWCON and World Cup years. If this is an annual tournament, surely a lot of countries will stay active and the game will grow. It will help South Africa prepare for Mozambique because we don’t want to under estimate any team. This will challenge us because we haven’t been active since April which is a very long time. Our league has been in recess from March due to COVID-19.
