FIFA steers controversy, snubs NFF, to pay Super Falcons directly

Crises rocking the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) relationship with the country’s female national team, the Super Falcons and their coach, American Randy Waldrum may deepen following the decision by FIFA to now pay allowances and bonuses directly to the players.

The Super Falcons were threatening to boycott World Cup matches should the NFF not adhere to an agreement to give the players 30% of the tournament revenue it gets from FIFA, which the football body now says will no longer pay, since FIFA is paying each World Cup player a minimum of $30,000 for participating in the group stages, up to a maximum of $270,000 per World Cup winner.

FIFA Secretary General, Ms Fatma Samoura had informed the Super Falcons players that it is because of them that the world football governing body has decided to pay prize money directly to players.

Ms Samoura had met the players in their dressing room immediately after the 0-0 draw with Ireland women at the ongoing FIFA Women’s World Cup hosted jointly by Australia and New Zealand. The draw ensured that the Nigerian women qualified for the quarter finals of the tournament, despite a backlog of unpaid allowances and bonuses owed them by NFF.

While addressing the players, Samoura noted that ‘it has been tough’ and that they had to ‘face the reality of Nigeria.’

She, however, added that for the first time, the prize money would be paid to them, players, because of such realities.

“It is because of you that for the first time in the history of FIFA, the FIFA women world cup prize money will be paid directly to you, the players,” Samoura said, amid cheers from the nine-time African champions.

The Super Falcons will now be paid their tournament match bonuses, following an announcement from FIFA that all players would receive around £15,760 for participation in the group stages of the tournament.

There were set to be separate payments following each of Nigeria’s group games – against Canada, Australia and Ireland – in addition to this.

The team had even threatened to go on strike for the first match of the competition against Canada who are also in the middle of a pay dispute with their own FA seeking equal pay and support with the men’s team.

The FIFA secretary general, who was in company with Nigeria’s leader of the delegation, Chief Felix Anyansi-Agwu and others, described the Super Falcons as the ‘best team of Africa.’

She said their performance would inspire other African teams at the tournament.

“You have won one match here, as Morocco and Zambia, but you are the only team that has made it to the knock-out stage yet. I am also excited because when FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced my name as the new FIFA Secretary-General, I was in Nigeria working for the United Nations. So, Nigeria is a second home for me.

“You should continue to believe in yourselves and play as a team, and be ready to lift the African flag higher in this tournament.”

Meanwhile, Osasu Obayiuwana, a British-Nigerian journalist, who posted the video on Twitter, noted that Samoura had mandated FIFA’s Director for Africa, Gelson Fernandes, to ensure that the players received the money as she would be leaving soon.

Obayiuwana wrote in a post on his Twitter account: “It is because of you (the @NGSuper_Falcons) that for the first time in the history of @FIFAcom, the #FIFAWWC prize money will be paid directly to you, the players.”

“@fatma_samoura, @FIFAcom Secretary-General said this to the #Nigeria players in the dressing room of… “Even though @fatma_samoura will be leaving #FIFA in a few months, I am told that @GelsonFernandes, FIFA’s director for Africa, has been given the mandate by her, to ensure that the money is received by the players. “Right now, every @NGSuper_Falcons player is entitled to $60k each.”

Samoura is leaving after seven years as the highest-profile woman working in the world football governing body. However, she will stay in the job through the ongoing Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and leave at the end of the year.

It would be recalled that with barely two weeks to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the Super Falcons’ coach Randy Waldrum had accused the NFF of owing him 14 months’ salary arrears, just as the latter called the American a ‘blabbermouth’ for complaining too much.

This is even as the the country’s national female team, the Super Falcons threatened to boycott the global tournament over poor welfare.

The 66-year-old Waldrum, from Irving, Texas, has been in open dispute with the NFF.

“What keeps me going are the players. Otherwise, I would have quit this job long ago,” Waldrum said in an explosive interview with ‘On The Whistle’ podcast.

“Up until about three weeks ago, I had been owed about 14 months’ salary. And then they paid seven months’ salary. We still have players that haven’t been paid since two years ago, when we played the summer series in the USA. It’s a travesty.

“In the two and a half years that I have been here [in Nigeria], I have never had one time that the Federation came to me and asked: ‘What do you need, coach?’ I’m not going to be quiet any more … in October, every country was given $960,000 from FIFA to prepare for the World Cup. Where is that money?”

However, NFF’s Communications Director, Ademola Olajire, in a vitriolic response to the journalist Samuel Ahmadu, called Waldrum a “blabbermouth” and the “worst Super Falcons coach in history”.

“Everyone knows FIFA pays preparation money for every team going to the Women’s World Cup. The team travelled to Japan to play matches, travelled to Mexico for a tournament and travelled to Turkey to play matches,” Olajire said.

“The team is presently having a training camp in the Gold Coast ahead of the World Cup. Is it ‘Mr Blabbermouth’ Waldrum who has been paying? He claims he’s been at the job because of the players. Bollocks. His entire objective has always been to add leading a team at the World Cup to his CV. [He is the] worst coach to have handled the Super Falcons of Nigeria, by a country mile.”