Super Falcons: Randy Waldrum rubbishes World Cup preparation plans, asks 'where is the $960,000 from FIFA?'

Super Falcons coach Randy Waldrum queries NFF over FIFA grant amidst poor World Cup preparations

With only a 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. 

Waldrum details factors behind poor World Cup preparation

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. The first week and a half was just going to be more local players… Then we were supposed to have 10 more days where we brought all the Super Falcons in and anybody I picked from the local camp, I could mix into that 10 days, look at them together, and then make the decision on the 23 that would fly to Australia. 

“Right before we were getting ready to come to camp, they cancelled the camp. They said there was no money, [they said] ‘we don’t have the money to do this, FIFA makes us book airline tickets for every player to Australia [and it] has to be business class, instead of just coach’ it was expensive and they didn’t have money, so anyway they cancelled that camp.”

Waldrum critical of decision to axe key assistant

Waldrum also stated that despite back-and-forth arguments with the federation on this and other decisions, he was unable to change their minds and was unable to see the local-based players in camp, which advised his decision not to call up an u-20 goalkeeper in his final squad for the World Cup. 

The American gaffer also explained that the choice not to call up the local-based goalkeeper cost him his assistant manager Lauren Gregg who was axed from the technical staff as a consequence. He said, “Finally, we got to a point where I said, ‘look it’s in my contract that I pick my players.’ and Immediately, as soon as I said that he said, okay, you pick who you want, but now Lauren Gregg can’t come… so now I’m going into the World Cup short staffed.  

“I’m trying to plan and prepare practices. If I have Lauren, 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.” 

Waldrum questions NFF's transparency over $960,000 FIFA fund

Further decrying the setbacks, Waldrum has noted that he would no longer be at loggerheads with the Federation, but will try to do the best with what he has been given. 

“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. 

“My issues with the federation are my issues. We’ll make sure when I get there, the team understands, let’s just focus on our job, it has nothing to do with you, and we’ll do the best we can with it. But I’m not going to be quiet anymore.” 

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The Houston Dash 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? 

“When we went to Japan [in October], we flew in and had a day's rest, and then played the game and then went home. Some of our players didn’t arrive until the morning before the game, five players that were going to start for me, arrived the night before the game, and the game was a four o’clock game, and they travelled 16 hours on a plane. 

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“Then we play Japan, and then we go home. We wasted the last five days of that window to train. So the question I have is where is this money?

“The other thing I found out from my FIFA connection is that if countries don’t have the money to buy the business class tickets for everybody, FIFA would front that money and buy those tickets and then just deduct it from the money you get from FIFA after the World Cup. 

So there’s no excuse of saying ‘We didn’t have money to buy tickets, so we couldn’t have camp’ but these are the kinds of things that the people in Nigeria don’t question… Where does $960,000 go? Why aren’t we prepared properly? 

Waldrum questions Super Falcons staff shortage

Waldrum also noted that a shortage of technical staff had hampered preparations for the World Cup, noting that the Super Falcons only have about half the number of required staff on their roster going into the tournament and noted the apathy that he as manager of the national team has received from the federation’s higher-ups. 

He said, “FIFA also allows your technical staff to have up to 22 people, well we’ve only got about 11 on our staff. If FIFA will pay bonuses for up to 22 people, why don’t we have 22 people, why don’t I have an analyst, why don’t we have scouts? 

“The US right now has scouts in Europe, watching teams play these exhibitions, just in case they face them at the World Cup. We don’t even have scouts going with us to Australia. I don’t have anybody to scout games if we were to get out of our group. I don’t have anybody to scout games in our group. 

“In the two-and-a-half years I’ve been coach, I have not had one time that the federation has come to me and said “what do you need coach? What do you need to succeed?”

Waldrum and the Super Falcons take on Australia, Canada, and Ireland in Group B at the World Cup with their first game on the 21st of July. 

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