Nigeria World Cup chaos after coach explosive interview over missing money and player boycott threats
Football coach Randy Waldrum – head of Nigeria’s national squad – is in an open dispute with the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF). The chaos comes just ahead of the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
“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.
“Every country was given $960,000 from Fifa to prepare for the World Cup. Where is that money?”
Randy Waldrum
“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?”
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 travelled to Japan to play matches, travelled to Mexico for a tournament and travelled to Turkey to play matches,” Olajire said.
“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 is the] worst coach to have handled the Super Falcons of Nigeria, by a country mile.”
World Cup boycott
On top of that, the players are also threatening to boycott World Cup matches should the NFF not adhere to an agreement to give the players 30% of the tournament revenue it gets from Fifa, which the NFF says it will no longer pay, since Fifa is paying each World Cup player a minimum of $30,000 for participating in the group stages, up to a maximum of $270,000 per World Cup winner.
Nigeria have a top-class team that can compete against the world’s best. They are the African continent’s best chance at bringing the World Cup to the region. But whether this current crisis within the camp will have any impact on the players is yet to be seen. Nigeria will take on Australia, Ireland and Canada in the group stages.
