Waldrum to rejoin Falcons soon
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), yesterday, said that it would evaluate the performance of Super Eagles’ Coach, Jose Peseiro, after the Africa Cup of Nations to decide whether to hand him a new contract or go for another manager for the senior national team.
The federation has also revealed that Super Falcons’ coach, Randy Waldrum, who has not been with the team since the end of the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand last year, will soon rejoin the team.
Speaking in Lagos, yesterday, NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, said the federation has been working to reorganise its operations, adding that part of its new strategy is to ensure that only those who contribute to the success of the national teams, including coaches, are given the mandate to manage the teams.
Gusau said that before signing Peseiro as Super Eagles coach, the NFF made him to understand that the least it expects is qualification for Nations Cup and taking the Eagles to the semifinals of the competition, as well as qualification for the 2026 World Cup.
“When the contract was signed the Africa Cup of Nations was to hold between June and July, last year. But unfortunately, the hosts, Cote d’Ivoire, were not ready for the competition, hence it was shifted to January. It was a very difficult situation for us.
“Fortunately, it was stated clearly that the contract will end on July 31, 2023. The coach’s lawyer argued that he has a contract for the Nations Cup, which he qualified us and also to take us to the semifinals. So, we cannot break it. We argued that nobody envisaged that the Nations Cup would be shifted.
“After going back and forth, we agreed to renegotiate the contract because $70, 000 was too difficult for us to pay. We eventually agreed to review the salary to $50,000. We also agreed that he would take care of the CHAN team.
“We were to play some CHAN qualifiers last year, but the games were not played because CAF has no host for the competition yet. The decision on the CHAN team was ensure he gets first-hand knowledge of the home-based players with a view to including them on the main Super Eagles.”
Gusau said whoever takes over the Super Eagles after the AFCON would be made to organise periodic camps for the home-based players to keep them in tune for any competition and also find a way of getting some of them into the main Super Eagles team.
He also disclosed that Peseiro personally asked for the Flying Eagles coach, Baruwa, to be drafted to the Super Eagles after watching the trainer in action with the U-20 team.
“Peseiro insisted that he would like to work with Baruwa because he felt he would contribute more to the Super Eagles than the coaches we seconded to him.
“One thing I must say is that we insisted that the number of coaches be cut from eight to a manageable number because some of the coaches were not doing anything.
“We gave the coaches opportunity to bring in their assistants because at the end of the day, the bulk stops at his table. However, we pay only allowances to coaches in the national teams who have other jobs, while the head coaches are on full salaries.”
On the wisdom of camping the Super Eagles in Abu Dhabi in the cold Gulf region when the Africa Cup of Nations will hold in hot West Africa, Gusau said the choice of training camp was taken by Peseiro, who said he wanted a place where the players would not be distracted.
“He looked at many campsites and chose Abu Dhabi. We offered him many places in West Africa, but he was looking for where there are not many Nigerians. He even rejected Saudi Arabia because of the popularity of Ahmed Musa and Odion Ighalo in the country. He wanted a solitary camp and chose UAE.
The NFF president expressed his optimism that Nigeria would win the AFCON despite the recent poor performance by the team in recent times.
“Some of the players won the U-17 World Cup and they are anxious of taking the AFCON, which I think they can do. If they fail, then that would be a sign that there is something seriously wrong with our football.”
On the Super Falcons, the NFF president said the federation has a programme that would ensure the team qualifies for the Paris 2024 Olympics, adding that ladies are two matches away from the Games.
“The next qualifiers are against Cameroun, with the first leg holding in Douala on February 19. The players are eager to play at the Olympics because only one of the, a goalkeeper, has been at the Games once in 2008. Oshoala, Nnadozie and the rest of them have not played at the Games and they have promised to do everything possible to quality for Paris 2024.”
Gusau said that the NFF has reached an agreement for Waldrum’s return to the Super Falcons on certain conditions.
“We have had a lot of back and forth with Waldrum, but last week, he agreed to return to the team. We had to insist that the woman that accompanies him to the Super Falcons will not be part of the team anymore.
“The physical trainer that we hired for the World Cup will still be part of the team because Waldrum has realised how important the coach is to the team.
“He talked about increment of his allowances, but we refused because the Super Falcons did not surpass the record we had before the World Cup in Australia. Last week, he called us that he has agreed to return to the job. He will be with us in the next few weeks.
