Ex-Super Falcons coach slams NFF over unpaid wages

Former Super Falcons head coach, Randy Waldrum, has raised serious concerns about the state of football administration in Nigeria, warning that without stronger support and investment, the national team could struggle to remain competitive on the global stage.

In a recent interview with EaglesTracker, the 68-year-old American, who also previously managed Trinidad and Tobago’s women’s team, reflected on his four-year stint with Nigeria and shared long-term plans he had hoped to implement.

Waldrum, who oversaw the Falcons’ qualification for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, was critical of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for its lack of financial commitment to the sport.

“It’s easier to dispose coaches if they don’t win, but with what’s going on in Africa, it’s going to be difficult to continue winning if the Federation doesn’t start to support things better,” Waldrum said.

He lauded the growing investments in women’s football by countries like Morocco, South Africa, and Ivory Coast, cautioning that Nigeria’s traditional dominance in Africa could soon fade without similar dedication.

Waldrum accused the NFF of financial mismanagement, revealing he went over a year without receiving his salary.”If I wasn’t working at Pittsburgh, I would’ve lost my home here,” he said, noting that he had to juggle multiple roles to maintain financial stability.

He highlighted the role of infrastructure in football development, pointing to Morocco’s national training centre as a global standard.”Nigeria almost feel like it’s a birthright to win the WAFCON, to win it because they’ve done so many times, but it won’t continue that way, and a day will come where they won’t qualify for the World Cup if they’re not careful,” he warned.

As the Super Falcons prepare to open their WAFCON campaign against Tunisia on July 6—followed by fixtures against Botswana and Algeria—Waldrum stressed that meaningful progress hinges on addressing the sport’s systemic issues in Nigeria.

During his tenure, Waldrum played a key role in attracting dual-nationality players to the national team, leveraging his U.S. connections while also coaching the University of Pittsburgh women’s team.

“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 organisational 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 they 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,” he said.