Where is $960,000 Preparation Money from FIFA? 14 Days to Kickoff of World Cup, Super Falcons’ Coach Throws ‘Bomb’ at NFF
With barely 14 days to Super Falcons’ first game of the 9th edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup against Canada at the Melbourne’s Rectangular Stadium in Australia, there appears to be no peace in sight between the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and its senior women’s team’s Head Coach, Randy Waldrum.
In the past two weeks, the otherwise taciturn American gaffer has lost his cool, shooting from the hip at any person that resembles officials of the federation.
Waldrum whose performance on the job has been far from satisfactory, led Falcons to finish fourth at the last African Women’s AFCON in Morocco and barely scraped through to the Mundial to be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
He in turn accused the federation of not allowing him to bring on board one of his trusted assistants to the team while also trying to impose players on him. In addition, the former university coach claimed he was being owed 14 months wages and allowances.
The NFF was not happy with the manner Waldrum took the issue of his owed salaries to the public domain two weeks ago. Football chiefs at the Sunday Dankaro secretariat of the NFF called Waldrum’s bluff and appear to be stalling for his contract to expire after the World Cup before giving him the boot.
But in his latest outburst yesterday on the ‘On the Whistle’ podcast which is a direct response to the statement issued by the federation, Waldrum insisted that “Up until about three weeks ago, I had been owed 14 months salary, and then they paid seven months salary.”
He revealed further that he is not the only one that is being owed. “We still have players that haven’t been paid since two years ago when we played the Summer Series in USA…It’s a Travesty!”
Waldrum queried what the NFF has done with the $960,000 FIFA paid to each of the 32 countries that qualified for the World Cup in Australia/New Zealand.
“I’m not going to be quiet anymore…In October, every country (that qualified for the World Cup) was given $960,000 from FIFA to prepare for the World Cup. Where’s that money?” queried the Super Falcons Coach.
To prepare the minds of Nigerians not to expect any miracle from his team, Waldrum insisted that he has not been allowed to have enough hands to help him scout on other teams in the same group as Super Falcons.
“FIFA allows your staff to have up to 22 people but we only have 11. We don’t have scouts to watch the teams in our group or potential opponents,” Waldrum emphasized amongst other accusations leveled against the Ibrahim Gusau led NFF.
There was no immediate reaction to Waldrum’s latest podcast from the NFF secretariat in Abuja even as most football stakeholders in the country were pissed by inability of the federation to fire the coach from the Nigerian job.
The Super Falcons who are currently on 15-day training tour of Gold Coast in Australia, had earlier traveled to Japan, Mexico and Turkey for preparatory tournaments leading to the World Cup.
Apart from playing Canada on July 21, the nine-time African champions will clash with co-host nation Australia and Republic of Ireland on Thursday, 27 Julyand Monday, 31 Julyrespectively, at the Lang Park in Brisbane.
Support Afnews Independent Journalism
At Afnews, we are dedicated to providing accurate, insightful, and timely news coverage. Our commitment to journalistic integrity ensures that you receive trustworthy information, unfiltered and unbiased. To maintain our independence and continue delivering quality content, we rely on the support of our readers.
If you value the work we do, please consider making a contribution. Your support enables us to keep bringing you the stories that matter.
Donate today and help us keep independent journalism alive. Thank you for your support!
