Nigeria has participated in every edition of the Women's World Cup alongside the USA, Brazil, Germany, Sweden, Japan, and Norway
Super Falcons captain Onome Ebi has denied a rumour circulating that the players are planning on boycotting their first game in the World Cup against Canada due to the federation's plan to hold onto their bonuses, citing the gossip as just a cock and bull story, Soccernet.ng reports.
The unconfirmed story has been circulating recently in Nigeria's media space, following the Super Falcons head coach Randy Waldrum's latest criticism of the federation, where he queried the federation about the whereabouts of the $96000 grant given to NFF last October by FIFA to prepare the team for the World Cup.
NFF had earlier said they do not have the funds to execute all the plans highlighted by the head coach, and this has generated disagreement between both parties.
This gossip about the Falcons planning to boycott their first game of the World Cup is another unnecessary setback for the team, while the team is still caught up in the middle of a crisis between the team's head coach and the federation.
The Super Falcons are due to play their first game against Canada on the 21st of July, and the team captain, in a video shared on the Super Falcons Twitter handle, has come out to deny any story that might cause unnecessary panic in the team's camp that could be disruptive to the team's plan ahead of their opening match, stating,
Honestly, I don't know where that is coming from. We have not had such conservation within ourselves, so we don't know where that is coming from. I don't think I have any comments to make on that. It's a good feeling, we are ready for the World Cup and prepared.
The 5-time FIFA World Cup veteran also spoke about how the team has settled down quickly into their new environment, to start with their training sessions.
It was intense, it was motivating. It was ok and the players are in good shape, in good spirits, and ready to go.
Ebi, who also spoke about the team's good spirits and togetherness in the camp, is the oldest player ever to represent Nigeria at the World Cup for both men's and women's tournaments.
This is what we bargain for, you know, very intense training, players are meeting up with every physical aspect of the training, tactical aspect of the present training. I think the mood is ok
Watch the video here:
🔊:”No idea where the story is coming from” – 💭🇳🇬 captain, Onome Ebi dispels media rumours about boycott threats ahead of 2023 Women's World Cup #SoarSuperFalcons #FIFAWWC #TeamNigeria pic.twitter.com/NTPaQcxWjo
— NGSuper_Falcons (@NGSuper_Falcons) July 8, 2023
Randy Waldrum's Falcons will aim to make it out of the group stage in Australia and New Zealand for the third time in Nigeria's competition history.
It is very disheartening for the NFF to continue to shortchanged Nigeria footballers anytime they go to represent the country in FIFA tournaments. Whatever money is earmarked for the team preparations should be solely used for that purpose. The idea of owing the coaches and their assistants is embarrassing to the organisation. We can’t win anything, or go far in tournaments without proper funding. We need to get serious and start looking after our sporting representatives if we really want to achieve anything tangible in football or other sporting events. Let the right people with integrity manage the affairs of our sport men . Enough of crooks running the sporting affairs of our country.