Duro Ikhazuagbe

Ahead of Super Falcons 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) scheduled for early next year, a former Head Coach of the team, American Randy Waldrum, has raised vital issues concerning Nigeria Football Federation’s handling of funds meant for preparations for tournaments.

The 2026 WAFCON is to serve as qualification for the next Women’s World Cup in 2027 to be hosted by Brazil.  Waldrum led Super Falcons to the last World Cup in Australia and New Zealand where Nigeria reached the Round of 16 before bowing out to England.

In a viral video circulating on social media X, Waldrum alleged that the NFF  received $960,000 (about N1.45billion) from  world football governing body, FIFA, in October 2022 for the preparations of the Super Falcons for the tournament in Australia but he (Waldrum) didn’t have adequate build up of the team  anywhere near that amount of cash.

Waldrum insisted that his informed contact in USA confirmed that every qualified team for that Women’s World Cup received that amount of money from FIFA.

“I have a real close contact here in the US that is very connected with some of the board at FIFA. This person told me that in October, every country was given $960k from FIFA to prepare for the World, where is that money,” Waldrum queried in that video in circulation.

The former Nigeria senior women’s team coach called out the NFF for not arranging quality pre-World Cup camps for his Super Falcons. Waldrum dismissed the team’s participation in a friendly tournament in Japan as inadequate and stressful for his squad.

“We went to Japan, we flew in and played the game and went home. Some of our players didn’t arrive until the morning before the game, I think five players who were going to start for me, arrived the night before the game and the game was 4 o’clock and they traveled 16 hours on the plane. And we played Japan and then we went home. We wasted the last five days of that window to train,” recalled Waldrum. 

He went further to state that with such preparation funds from FIFA, the NFF had no reason whatsoever to subject the team to such mindless trip when proper camping and friendlies with other teams  not in such distant places would have been adequate for Falcons.

“So, all these questions I have is where is this money? And the other thing I found out through my FIFA connections is that if countries don’t have the money to buy business class tickets for everybody, FIFA will fund it and buy those tickets and just deduct it from the monies federations get from FIFA after the World Cup.

“So there’s no excuse to say we didn’t have money to buy tickets and then we didn’t have camps. These are the kinds of things that the people of Nigeria don’t question. 

“In the US, they would be questioned. If the US Soccer Federation was doing the same things, the US Soccer Federation would have to answer to it,” observed the coach in comparison with other FAs handling of their national teams.

He also faulted the NFF for failing to maximise FIFA-approved staffing provisions. 

According to Waldrum, while FIFA allows up to 22 technical staff members, the NFF travelled with only about 11.

“FIFA also allows your technical staff up to 22 people. Well, we have only about 11. So if FIFA will pay bonuses for up to 22 people, why don’t we have 22 people? I don’t have an analyst and I scout. Listen, the US has a scout in Europe, watching teams play in these exhibitions, in case they face them at the World Cup,” 

“We (Super Falcons) don’t even have scouts going with us to Australia. I don’t even have anybody to scout games. If we get out of our group, I don’t even have anybody to scout games in other groups. Everything I have to do is on videos and what I can pick up online,” Waldrum revealed under the challenging conditions coaches work with the NFF leadership.

All attempts to get reactions on the viral video from the NFF leadership failed.

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