The Super Falcons will start their ninth campaign in the Women’s World Cup against Canada at the Rectangular Stadium in Melbourne on Friday.
Super Falcons head coach, Randy Waldrum has maintained that his team is focused on getting a positive result against Canada on Friday and is not distracted by the bonus and wage rows with the Nigeria Football Federation(NFF) Soccernet.ng reports
Waldrum has been at loggerheads with the Nigeria Football Federation over the issues of bonuses and unpaid wages.
Despite these issues, the 66-year-old is only focused on helping the Super Falcons have a successful outing in this year’s Women’s World Cup.
Randy Waldrum’s team will face Canada on Friday in their first game before tackling Australia and the Republic of Ireland respectively.
In an interview with Reuters after the team’s training on Wednesday, Waldrum spoke about how the team has only been focusing on having a good outing at the tournament and has not been deterred by the ongoing bonus and wage row with NFF
We’ll be there. All that transpired before we came and I think the team, once we all arrived here, have just focused on Canada, the American told Reuters
We met about it the first night we arrived and at that point, we all just agreed not to continue to discuss it, not let it be out there, and that we’re here to do a job
He further talked about how the players have been handling the situation professionally since the team arrived in Australia
I’ve been pleased about it because this very easily could be weighing and be a burden on the team, but I haven’t seen that they have allowed that to happen. They have handled everything professionally.
I don’t think you will get any of the players commenting at all during the tournament about it.
Waldrum also spoke about the long-time issues that have been hindering the Super Falcons from contesting among the top teams in the World.
At some point, there has got to become a realization about all the things we do day-to-day with how the federation treats the players and how they provide resources for proper training, travel, and all those issues
It does not mean that Nigeria or any of the African nations at this World Cup can’t achieve a lot and make a deep run
But if you want to be a top team year-in, year-out, you’ve obviously got to be willing to provide more resources.
The Falcons will play their first game against Canada on Friday, July 21st at 3:30 am Nigerian time.
