Head coach of Nigeria’s women’s football national team (Super Falcons), Randy Waldrum has expressed his displeasures at the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand later this month.
Coach Waldrum, while speaking in John Krysinky’s Sounding off on soccer podcast, said the team are not adequately is not adequately prepared and the the NFF have not supported the team adequately with about three weeks to the start of the tournament.
The Super Falcons coach also revealed that the Federation cancelled one of the team’s training camps which was meant to hold in Nigeria for about 12 days.
“I know we’re not prepared the way we need to be. I’ve been very frustrated with the Federation (NFF) and the lack of support. We were supposed to have a camp for 10-12 days in Nigeria before going to Australia for another 10-15 days, but the Federation canceled the camp in Nigeria.”
“We have fewer days to prepare for the World Cup than a college preseason, and it blows my mind because we’ve known about this since last year.”
Randy Waldrum also accused of meddling into in team’s selection in the podcast and he also said some of the the the players are still being owed their allowances from last year’s Africa Women’s Championship in Morocco.
“After the loss in Morocco at WAFCON 2022, the players had not received their payment. As a result, they boycotted training ahead of the match against Zambia. Tochukwu Oluehi, my backup goalkeeper, took the initiative to discuss the payment issue with the federation. However, they did not appreciate her approach and subsequently dismissed her from the national team. Later on, they allowed her to return on the condition that she wrote an apology letter.”
“Furthermore, they insisted that I select a goalkeeper from Nigeria for the World Cup who I have never seen before and who has never attended any of our camps. I declined their request, stating that my contract grants me the authority to choose my team. In response, they retaliated by informing me that I couldn’t bring my assistant coach, Lauren Gregg.”
The Super Falcons are grouped alongside one of the hosts of the competition: Australia. Canada and debutants, Republic of Ireland.
