The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, says it is no longer owing the senior national female football team, Super Falcons, as all pending match bonuses and allowances have been reimbursed.
There has been a dispute between the Super Falcons and NFF over the backlog of unpaid salaries and allowances which dates back to 2019.
Last month, the Super Falcons’ coach, Randy Waldrum said the NFF owed him 14 months’ salary but only cleared seven months pending salary (50 per cent) recently.
He also added that the NFF owed some players “per diem and bonuses” since two years ago.
Earlier in June, the coach said he was “frustrated” by the “lack of support” from the NFF ahead of the FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup, adding that the players “are not prepared the way we need to be” for the World Cup which started on July 20 – and ended on August 20.
The NFF debunked the claims, accusing Waldrum of presenting a deficient list of players for the competition. “Instead of admitting his glaring deficiencies, he’s there shooting his mouth off,” Ademola Olajire, NFF’s communications director said.
Wading into the matter, the House of Representatives set up an ad-hoc committee to look into the face-off between the national female football team and the football federation.
Appearing before the committee yesterday, NFF’s president, Ibrahim Gusau, said the match bonuses and allowances of the players were paid last Friday.
Responding to the ad-hoc committee’s inquiry regarding the players’ unpaid allowances for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup hosted by France, Gusau explained that FIFA only released $960,000 (N725,574,400) to all 32 countries that qualified for the 2023 World Cup which was to be used by these countries to prepare their teams for the tournament.
“We can’t use this money to pay outstanding allowances for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup,” he noted.
Not satisfied with the response, the chairperson of the committee, Blessing Onu directed the NFF President to present a report detailing how the Super Falcons were funded during the 2019 women’s World Cup as well as the breakdown of match bonuses payments and its slips for all 23 players and the coaching crew before August 30, 2023.
On how the NFF is being funded, Gusau said that the association is funded by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and FIFA; and not the federal government. According to him, “CAF provides $250,000 per annum as a subvention fund.”
Members of the ad-hoc committee expressed dissatisfaction that the NFF paid the salaries of the American head coach and neglected the Nigerian coaches. They called for fair and equal treatment for all.
