Randy Waldrum, the pinnacle trainer of Nigeria’s Super Falcons, needs to be taking a look ahead to main the nine-time African champions – probably the most a hit nationwide crew at the continent – to their World Cup opener in opposition to the Olympic champions, Canada, at Melbourne’s Rectangular Stadium on 21 July.
The American hasn’t ever hidden the truth that main a crew to a World Cup finals, for the primary time as a trainer will probably be a profession top level. In distinction, Nigeria are a staple on the World Cup, with the Falcons qualifying for each match for the reason that inaugural 1991 version in China and achieving the quarter-finals on the 1999 match within the United States.
But the Nigerian camp isn’t a contented one in this day and age. The 66-year-old Waldrum, from Irving, Texas, is in open dispute with the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF).
“What keeps me going are the players. Otherwise, I would have quit this job long ago,” Waldrum said in an explosive interview with the On The Whistle podcast. “Up until about three weeks ago, I had been owed about 14 months’ salary. And 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 a 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?
Ademola Olajire, the NFF’s communications director, in a vitriolic response to the journalist Samuel Ahmadu, called Waldrum a “blabbermouth” and the “worst Super Falcons coach in history”.
“Everyone knows Fifa pays preparation money for every team going to the Women’s World Cup. The team traveled to Japan to play matches, traveled to Mexico for a tournament and traveled to Turkey to play matches,” Olajire mentioned.
“The team is currently 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 is the] worst coach to have handled the Super Falcons of Nigeria, by a country mile.”
And as though this isn’t sufficient, the gamers are threatening to boycott World Cup suits must the NFF no longer adhere to an settlement to offer the gamers 30% of the match income it will get from Fifa, which the NFF says it’ll not pay, since Fifa is paying every World Cup participant no less than $30,000 for collaborating within the crew phases, as much as a most of $270,000 according to World Cup winner.
Amid this chaos, it’s simple to overlook that Nigeria has a number of top-level gamers with the ability to compete in opposition to the arena’s very best, if they’re well-coached and feature the considered necessary administrative make stronger.
A squad that includes the Paris FC goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie, Atlético Madrid’s attacking midfielder Rasheedat Ajibade, the ahead Desire Oparanozie, who’s with Wuhan within the Chinese Super League, in addition to the irrepressible Asisat Oshoala, who just lately gained the Uefa Champions League with Barcelona, are not at all cannon fodder.
But can they pull victory out of the jaws of crisis and upward thrust above the organizational and administrative chaos that threatens to show Africa’s maximum constant World Cup performers right into a spectacle for the entire fallacious causes? The crew phases, wherein they are going to additionally play the hosts, Australia, and Ireland, will give you the solutions quickly sufficient.
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