Despite a superlative showing by the Super Super Falcons at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the Nigeria Football Federation, has sacked coach of the team, Me. Randy Waldrum.
President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau, announced the removal of Randy Waldrum from his position as the coach of the Nigerian women’s football team.
This decision comes after a heated exchange of words between Waldrum and the NFF, where the coach criticized the federation for inadequate preparations leading up to the World Cup.
Despite the team’s commendable performance in the tournament, which saw them valiantly compete against England in the round of 16, Waldrum’s expired contract will not be renewed, effectively ending his hopes of overseeing the team’s upcoming Olympic qualifiers and potential participation in the tournament.
Gusau’s revelation came during an inquiry by the sports committee in the House of Representatives, which aimed to address the bonus dispute involving the national team.
This contentious issue gained international attention following Nigeria’s exit from the competition. Gusau clarified that Waldrum has received his outstanding salary payments but will not be offered a contract extension.
He further elaborated on the distribution of FIFA’s allocated funds, emphasizing that the funds were meant exclusively for preparing the team for the World Cup, not for other obligations such as unpaid bonuses or past qualifier matches.
“All the 32 nations that qualified for the World Cup were given $960,000 each for preparation for the World Cup.
“In January, we organised a training tournament of four nations – Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica and Nigeria. Every team used FIFA preparation money. The team was camped in Mexico and they were there for 13 days. In March, they were in Turkey for another training camp.
“The money was not given for the welfare of players but for preparing the team. We paid them allowances as per the tournament they participated in. We cannot use the preparation money to pay outstanding of qualifier matches.
“If the auditors of FIFA should see it, they will query us for that. The money was specific. We cannot use the money for a qualifier that was played in 2019,” he said.
Gusau went on to discuss the financial support from the federal government. He revealed that the team received only half of the initially approved budget due to the unfavorable exchange rate when converting Nigerian Naira to U.S. dollars.
The government’s approved budget of around $1.7 million was reduced to half when converted by the Ministry of Finance, creating additional financial challenges for the team.
“It is a budget we presented to the government requesting for intervention from the government, that was what cumulatively came around $1.7 million and the government approved it. And when it got to the federal ministry of finance-they don’t pay us in dollars. The Ministry converted the money into dollars using the official exchange rate. Only half of the money was paid,” he said.
-OwnGoalNigeria.com
