Players Protest Against Cancellation of Match Bonuses
The upcoming women’s world cup in Australia and New Zealand is going to be a very interesting one. As usual the Nigerian Female Team, Super Falcons are up in arms against the Nigerian Football Federation over a myriad of issues.
First the team coach, Randy Waldrum had accused the NFF of making shoddy preparations for the team for the World Cup. Waldrum also accused the NFF of not paying players their earned bonuses and even not been up to date with the salaries of the coaching crew. He said up until three weeks ago, he was owed 14 months salaries and was only paid half of that, leaving an arrears of 7 months.
Waldrum also revealed that every Federation was given $960,000 to prepare for the world cup.
The NFF shot back at the coach saying his highest achievement was to add to his CV that he led a team to the world cup.
Now the latest salvo coming from the camp of the Super Falcons, is that the team may boycott their opening game against Canada, after they were informed by the Secretary General of the NFF, Mohammed Sanusi that their match bonuses for the World Cup had been cancelled by the NFF.
The NFF is insisting that because FIFA announced that every player at the world cup group stage would be paid $30,000, therefore the NFF would not pay any additional bonuses. FIFA had taken the unique step of directly paying into the personal account of the players rather than the Federations for transparency reasons.
Following the disclosure, the senior members of the team held a meeting and resolved to boycott the first game on July 21.
The players are insisting that their demands for match bonuses are legitimate and the NFF should pay them or they would be forced to take action.
The impending show of shame for Nigeria at the women’s world cup is certainly not the best way to prepare for such a global tournament.
The scenario is a recipe for certain disaster and a poor showing at the world cup. The response of the NFF to the coach and players is certainly neither motivational nor good enough for a tournament of this nature.
Saner heads should prevail and help resolve this issue for the country to have a good showing at the 2023 Female world cup. The NFF should take immediate steps to support the coach and resolve the lingering issues before the situation becomes irreparable.
