With just few days to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Super Falcons coach Randy Waldrum has continued his attack on the NFF over the team’s preparation for the tournament amidst the federation’s claims of not having enough funds to execute the necessary plans.
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Speaking on the ‘On the Whistle’ podcast, Waldrum mentioned a number of issues that have hampered preparations for the World Cup, including a lack of adequate camping, which he said was down to a decision by the NFF.
He said, “We were supposed to have camp before the World Cup in Nigeria. I was promised three weeks of camp.
“Right before we were getting ready to come to camp, they cancelled the camp. They said there was no money, so they cancelled that camp.
“I’m trying to plan and prepare practices. If I have Lauren (his American assistant), I can practice a certain way, I can split things up, because she knows how I work. If I don’t have Lauren, I’ve got to do it myself because my Nigerian assistants, I haven’t worked with enough. They don’t know me well enough to handle things the way I want.
“I’ve just finally gotten to a point where I’m like okay, we’re going with what we have. The good news is I think our team is in a good place, they’re in good spirits, they’re unified, they’re as together as we’ve ever been. So I feel good about that.
The manager, however, questioned the frugal nature of the NFF given the disbursal of funds to all federations by FIFA in order to make preparations for the World Cup smooth, saying, “The other side of this is, I have a real close contact in the US that is very connected and on some of the boards at FIFA.
This person told me, that in October, every country was given $960,000 from FIFA to prepare for the World Cup. Where is that money? “If Nigeria got it in October, why didn’t we have a camp in November?
You ‘re incompetent – NFF fire back at Waldrum
The Nigeria Football Federation has called off the bluff of Super Falcons coach Randy Waldrum labeling him “an incompetent loud mouth who had found his voice now that he is about to achieve his only ambition of leading a national team to the Women’s World Cup.”
“Everyone knows that FIFA pays preparation money for every team going to the World Cup. The team travelled to Japan to play matches, Mexico for a tournament and travelled to Turkey to play matches.” In a statement released by the Director of Communication, Demola Olajire, the football house stated that the team is presently on a 15-day camp in Australia, asking, “is it Mr Waldrum that has been paying for the trips?
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