Super Falcons In Turmoil: Nigeria May Miss World Cup Over 2-Year Salary Arrears Despite N729m FIFA Largesse To NFF

The camp of the Super Falcons of Nigeria is in turmoil as the players have threatened to boycott the FIFA 2023 World Cup over salary arrears for two years.

The team coach, Randy Waldrum, a US citizen is equally owed 14 months in arrears.

To worsen the situation, the NFF has reneged on its promise to honour an agreement to give the players 30% of the tournament revenue it gets from FIFA even after collecting N729 million ($960,000) from FIFA to prepare for the World Cup.

The Ibrahim Musa Gusau-led NFF is accused of squandering the money with top officials allegedly sharing the money without investing in the team.

The Federation has been accused of serial financial recklessness and embezzlement but THE WHISTLER’s efforts to confirm the development have not yielded results.

Gusau and the spokesman of the Federation, Ademola Olajire, often reject calls and do not return messages sent to them.

There are fears that the Nigerian squad, featuring the Paris FC goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie, Atlético Madrid’s attacking midfielder Rasheedat Ajibade, the forward Desire Oparanozie of Wuhan in the Chinese Super League, and the pick of the pack, Asisat Oshoala, who recently won the Uefa Champions League with Barcelona, may boycott the event that’s less than one week away, following threats they handed out some days ago.

The Falcons begin their World Cup opener against the Olympic champions Canada, at Melbourne’s Rectangular Stadium on 21 July, 3:30am, WAT.

Australia is the host of the event that kicks off on 20 July between New Zealand and Norway.

Yet with all the talents in the most decorated African team, the open dispute between the Federation and the players/coach has cast a pall of anger and frustration on the team.

Expressing his frustration in a podcast(On the Whistle), the 66-year-old Waldrum, said the NFF said it promise to pay the players no longer hold since FIFA has promised each World Cup player a minimum of $30,000 for participating in the group stages, and a maximum of $270,000 per World Cup winner.

“What keeps me going are the players. Otherwise, I would have quit this job long ago. Up until about three weeks ago, I had been owed about 14 months’ salary,” he said.

He added that, “Then they paid seven months’ salary. We still have players that haven’t been paid since two years ago, when we played the summer series in the USA. It’s a travesty.

“In the two and a half years that I have been here (in Nigeria), I have never had one time that the Federation came to me and asked: ‘What do you need, coach?’

“I’m not going to be quiet any more… In October, every country was given $960,000 from Fifa to prepare for the World Cup. Where is that money?”

But in a violent reaction to the Coach interview, Olajire referred to the American coach as the “worst Super Falcons coach in history”.

He said, “Everyone knows Fifa pays preparation money for every team going to the Women’s World Cup. The team travelled to Japan to play matches, travelled to Mexico for a tournament and travelled to Turkey to play matches.

“The team is presently having a training camp in the Gold Coast ahead of the World Cup. Is it ‘Mr Blabbermouth’ Waldrum who has been paying?

“He claims he’s been at the job because of the players. Bollocks. His entire objective has always been to add leading a team at the World Cup to his CV,” he said.

Dropping the bombshell, he said, “He is the worst coach to have handled the Super Falcons of Nigeria, by a country mile.”