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Randy Waldrum's Score Card As Head Coach of Nigeria Women's National Team. Did He Achieve His Mandate, Should His Contract be Renewed or Not?
Randy Waldrum finished his three years contract as head coach of Nigeria women's national team from October 2020 to August 2023 without winning any major trophy for Nigeria, but succeeded in building a world class team the country's fans were so proud of, with their exploits at the just concluded FIFA Women's World Cup. The question remain, should his contract be renewed further or not?
On October 5, 2020, Randy Waldrum was appointed the head coach of Nigeria women's national football team, barely three years after turning down the role.
Nigeria are the only African team to have played in all the FIFA Women’s World Cups since 1991, but they have failed to translate their continental dominance to the world stage. Their best performance at the World Cup was in 1999, when they reached the quarter-finals. Yet, their performances at the world stage were grossly below standard, conceded 49 times, more goals than any other team in world. Lost 8 - 0 thrice to Norway, USA and France respectively.
Though, the Nigeria women's national team won the 2018 African cup nations with a slim 1 - 0 win against South Africa, making it the 11th trophies out of 13, but the team was aging and the cracking was becoming so glaring.
Waldrum's mandate was clear: to get young players who are good enough to compete with the old guard and to build a strong squad with the strength, stamina and technical balance to give the world’s best teams a good run for their money. With an initial two years contract 2020 - 2022, which was to qualify Super Falcons for 2022 WAFCON hosted in Morocco.
Having achieved his initial mandate, Waldrum's contract was renewed in March 2022 for another one year, till after the World Cup. .
“He (Waldrum) has been offered a contract to continue as coach of the team that will last till after the World Cup,” an official of the NFF stated.
“The coach has achieved the initial mandate given to him by the NFF, which was to qualify the team for WAFCON in Morocco. So we are happy with the progress of the team.”
Waldrum's second mandate was to qualify for the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and to lead the team to a successful outing, to at least reach the round of 16 and to surpass the quarter final of the competition.
“He will continue to work on the project, getting young players who are good enough to compete with the old guard and to always pick the best team that can compete with any team in the world" said the NFF official.
At Wafcon 2022, Nigeria placed 4th after losing a semi final game against host Morocco on penalty shootout and also lost the third place game to Zambia. NFF was quite disappointed, but again, Waldrum managed to meet his mandate by qualifying the team for the world cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Nigeria was eliminated at world cup by England in the round of 16, in a match that would not be easily forgotten in the anals of women's football. The game ended 4 - 2 penalty shootout.
Nigeria exited the tournament unbeaten in regulation time, despite playing against some of the best teams in the world: England, Canada, Ireland and even defeated the co-host Australia.
Nigeria's Super Falcons has shown they are now capable of playing against any team in world and has moved in the latest FIFA ranking from 40 to 32. The fans are so pleased with the team's latest performances. And the question remain, should NFF renew Waldrum's contract or not.
The Verdict:
NFF have sited lack of fund to continue to remunerate the coach. In fact, at this point, Waldrum is being owed five months salary, before his contract ended. There have been a running media battle between NFF on one side, the coach and his players on the other side over on paid bonuses and demand that FIFA pay their participation fees at world Cup direct to their personal accounts. Fifpro and other commentators have asked NFF to pay up.
NFF have set up a committee to look into the matter and possibly proffer solutions ahead of Olympics qualification games.
