Nigeria’s FIFA shame

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COMPARED with other recent global athletic competitions at which Nigeria was fully represented, the ongoing Women’s World Cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand was, on the surface, relatively incident-free. The Super Falcons surprised the punditocracy by qualifying from the group stages, shocking the Matildas of Australia in the process. By the time the Falcons lost 4-2 on penalties to the Lionesses of England in the Round of 16 game, they had already captured the attention and affection of Nigerians and millions of soccer enthusiasts across the world.

Yet, beneath the seeming serenity, there was a lot of tension bubbling under the surface. The first indication that something was not right emerged when football-governing body FIFA announced that, for the first time, prize money from the competition would be paid directly to the players. According to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, what he described as a “unique distribution model” in which FIFA consciously skipped over national federations was necessitated by the discovery that some federations typically kept part, or sometimes all, of the monies meant for the players.

It later emerged that one of the errant associations whose mischief forced FIFA to come up with the new payment arrangement was the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), which apparently was owing the players “bonus payments, camp allowances and expenses, some of which date back to 2021.” As a matter of fact, some of the players were already contemplating downing tools before the tournament as a way of making their grievances felt before FIFA decided to step in.

Full confirmation of the ugly conditions endured by the Super Falcons players emerged after their Round of 16 exit when star forward Ifeoma Onumonu hit out at the team’s preparations leading to the global football tournament and lamented that “In Nigeria, we don’t have access to much [resources]. Our training fields aren’t great. Where we sleep isn’t great. Sometimes we share beds.” She continued: “It’s not good enough. In terms of recovery, we don’t have much of any of that. We don’t have access to a gym in camp in Nigeria. There’s a lot that needs to be done. Hopefully more people start to talk about it. Coming here it’s hard to adjust. We do what we can because we love playing for our country but hopefully they make it easier for us to do our best.”

The players were not the only ones on the receiving end of the NFF’s apparent corruption and ineptitude. Speaking on the On the Whistle Podcast, coach Randy Waldrum also complained that at a point, he was being owed about 14 months’ salary, and appeared to confirm forward Onumonu’s story with his observation that “We still have players that haven’t been paid since two years ago (sic), when we played the summer series in the USA. It’s a travesty.”

The reaction of the NFF to the accusations was not in the least helpful. Embracing the path of vulgarity and name-calling, the NFF’s communications director, Ademola Olajire, described coach Waldrum as a “blabbermouth” and the “worst Super Falcons coach in history.” Instructively, the NFF communications director did not refute the accusations. This marks a new low in the country’s sporting history, littered as it is with waste, venality and egregious corruption. While corruption across Nigerian sports is epochal, Nigerian football is a sewage. Until someone decides that enough is enough and decides to clean house, it will continue to be shamefully run.

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