Waldrum Dismisses NFF’s Handling of Finances in His Four Years  in-charge of Super Falcons

Duro Ikhazuagbe 

Former Super Falcons Head Coach, American Randy Waldrum, has dismissed Nigeria Football Federation’s handling of finances during his four-year in-charge of the country’s senior women’s football team as poor.

The 68-year-old took charge of the Nigerian senior women’s team in October 2020 after initially declining to take on the role three years prior.

Speaking in an interview with Eagles Tracker Podcaston YouTube yesterday, Waldrum insisted that if not for the fact that he had a second job as coach of the  University of Pittsburgh Panthers women’s football team, he would have lost his house in the US on mortgage as well as his car and medical insurance due owed wages at the NFF.

“Without  a disrespect to the federation (NFF), it was the best decision (not to resign as coach of University of Pittsburgh Panthers women’s football team), as there were times that I wasn’t paid for 14 months. And  If I wasn’t working at Pittsburgh, I would have  lost my home here (US), so I needed the security,” observed Waldrum who qualified Super Falcons for the 2023 Women’s World Cup as well as the Paris 2024 Olympic Games football event.

The former Trinidad and Tobago coach stressed that he would have dropped the second job if things were properly managed at the NFF.

“I was willing to step down if I got there and everything was the way it should’ve worked with the payments, but it wasn’t the same,” restated.

Although Waldrum admitted enjoying working with the Super Falcons and had 10-year long that would have culminated in Nigeria winning the Women’s World Cup, he however had to step down to look after his wife, Dianna, who had an open heart surgery last year.

“There’s so much potential to do great things on both the men and women’s side in Nigeria, and my hope when I took the job was that I could bring some new ideas and thought process, especially with our women being the best in the World here in the United States.

“I thought I could bring some of the organizational ideas, the long-term planning. I had developed a ten-year plan for Nigeria, for youth football and how it would translate into winning a World Cup within the next ten years and I hoped I could influence it that way because I knew Nigeria had great players.

“That’s why I took on the project, but I enjoyed my four years there. I also had some difficult time there, but we had a lot of great success, but I loved my time there.”

The Super Falcons under the watch of indigenous Coach Justin Madugu, are in Morocco in their quest for a 10th Women Africa Cup of Nations title. They will play Ghana’s Black Queens in their final warm up game on Sunday before begin their campaign in a fascinating clash against Tunisia on the 6th of July before taking on Botswana in Casablanca four days later. 

Nigeria’s final group game will be against Algeria on July 13.