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On The Whistle

"People would not believe what's going on here." - Randy Waldrum on Nigeria Women's team's problems

Ep. 179
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It's Women's World Cup time and On The Whistle are excited to bring you a series of big interviews ahead of the showpiece in Australia and New Zealand. First up is an explosive interview with Nigeria Super Falcons head coach Randy Waldrum who holds nothing back. The American talks about the challenges the team has faced from outside and within, including the lack of payment from the federation and expelling players who complained.


We reached out to the Nigerian Federation who failed to comment as well as FIFA, Desire Oparanozie and Tochukwu Oluehi. CAF responded to the allegations made in the podcast, saying “These allegations are specific to the NFF and it is only fair that it is the NFF that responds to them. CAF is not in a position to comment further. The players and members of technical team have several options for recourse in an event of a financial dispute.”


Host: Alasdair Howorth

Guests: Randy Waldrum (Nigeria women's national team head coach)


#SoarSuperFalcons #TeamNigeria #FIFAWWC



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Show Notes

00:00 - Intro

01:51 - Being introduced to "soccer" as a kid

04:19 - Stepping into coaching

11:42 - Why he coaches both Nigeria and at a US college

12:41 - Weight of coaching the Super Falcons

16:26 - Systemic change needed in Nigerian Federation

19:12 - Waldrum still owed 7 months wages by NFF

20:19 - Players don’t want to play because of how they are treated

23:37 - Desire Oparanozie and Tochukwu Oluehi been dismissed from team for speaking out

28:21 - Why the players boycotted training at WAFCON

34:10 - Federation tried to force Waldrum to take a local goalkeeper

34:37 - Why the Super Falcons training camp was cancelled

35:37 - NFF punished Waldrum by not letting assistant coach Lauren Gregg go to World Cup

39:49 - Chaotic preparation over the last year

46:27 - Waldrum never once consulted about teams to play against in preparation for WC

50:46 - Nigeria will fall from the top of Africa if things don’t change

Duration: 01:00:45

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