I struggled with sleep on Tuesday evening watching the second leg game between Bayana Bayana of South Africa and Nigeria’s Super Falcons inside the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa. The match was the decider to know which of the two countries would qualify to participate in the 2024 Olympic Games later in July in France. The game ended on a barren note. Super Falcons won the first leg played in Abuja by 1-0, a goal scored by the team’s captain, Rasheedat Ajibade.
The one-goal win on aggregate qualified the Falcons to participate in the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament for the first time since 2008 and will join Brazil, Spain, and Japan in a potentially-explosive Group C in July. This Group C is a no-brainer in terms of the chances of Nigeria qualifying from it. The pedigree of Brazil, Spain, and Japan dwarfs Nigeria.
However, soccer is a leveler, depending on the team’s preparedness which shouldn’t start after the draws have been made public. I digress!
The South Africans were fidgety on Tuesday evening largely due to their inexperience while the Nigerians, always loaded to the hilt with experienced girls, ran around the pitch without a discerning tactical plan. They barely strung together two passes or could control the ball expertly before deciding what to do with it. The falcons’ clueless pattern of play wasn’t ever going to produce a goal for Nigeria, even if the game was played for 900 minutes.
The Falcons have qualified for the Olympics but a lot needs to be done by the coaching crew. What were we expecting as Nigerians from Randy Waldrum? Those in NFF who renewed Waldrum’s contract hired him part-time for a full-time assignment. Would it shock anyone to read here that Waldrum didn’t return with the team from South Africa? He went straight to Pittsburgh in the United States of America (USA) from Johannesburg. Who does that?
The Sports Minister, Senator John Owan Enoh should know that his ministry is directly responsible for Nigeria’s participation at the Olympic Games. Given the countries in Nigeria’s group, it is looking like a jamboree for the Falcons if Waldrum behaves like one who needs to be pampered to return to Nigeria. So, Waldrum can be asked to remain as the coach of the Super Falcons while another coach takes the squad to the Olympics. After all, the Nigerian coach Justin Madugu handled the two games against Cameroon which the Falcons drew 0-0 in Yaoundé and won the Abuja leg 1-0.
Coach Randy Waldrum needs to decide if he truly wants the Nigeria job. He can’t stroll into the country a week to games and expect the camp to be filled with the players. What Waldrum must understand is that the world is a global village where the big girls in the team can monitor everything happening in the camp from wherever they are.
It was quite embarrassing watching the South Africans passing through the immigration centre inside the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja seven days to the match day, and it showed in the way they battled our girl in every department of the game in Abuja. Who will blame Oshoala for arriving at the Abuja camp 24 hours before the first leg in Abuja? Not when Coach Waldrum does whatever he likes and goes unpunished.
Strikingly, history has an uncanny way of repeating itself. The Falcons are ranked in the 36th. But like you know football isn’t rocket science. Nigeria could spring surprises when the matches begin. But not with Coach Waldrum who may not come to the country until two weeks to the competition complaining about unpaid wages and abusing NFF officials by either accusing them of unproven malpractices or gross incompetence. Yet, he renewed his contract with the perennial debtor federation.
We must rescue our football from this coach who enjoys dragging Nigeria’s name in the mud. He has raised the alarm in the international media that the Super Falcons should be camped in an unnamed European country as if that isn’t given. We adopted this style in the past to make the players get used to the type of climatic situation they would face during such competitions as the Olympics. Not anymore. Our players have been living in European countries and other continents with harsher climatic conditions.
Coaching is a function of hiring and firing depending on the manager’s successes, especially for inpatient employers. In fact, when teams are fumbling their fans wave the white flag calling for the coach’s sack, if the teams’ fortunes continue to dwindle. What stands the European clubs’ management out is the fact that they have organised and tested systems which throw up the next manager when anyone is sacked or should I say released mutually. Indeed, there are two types of coaches. Those already sacked, and those waiting for their sack letters.
Waldrum shouldn’t tell us where to camp the team. NFF should ask Falcons to start their camping sessions soonest in Nigeria with the mandate to Waldrum to rebuild the team by introducing new players from the domestic leagues. Besides, such localised camping sessions can help the girls whose season ends early to head to the camp. Movement to the designated European camp should only start when the girls are complete.
Brazil, Spain, and Japan don’t need to camp in Europe because the culture of women’s football comes to them like second nature. Their domestic leagues are some of the best in the world with credible nurseries to churn out new players and coaches seamlessly. Pitches in the three countries in Nigeria are world class with the girls properly motivated.
Honourable Sports Minister sir, countries that would do well in Paris in July began their preparations eight or 12 years ago. The Olympic Games have a four-year circle meaning that it takes eight years (two Olympic circles) at the least to produce athletes who would win laurels at the multi-sports competition not after the draws of the competition are known. Winning medals at the Olympics isn’t as easy as purchasing a lottery ticket at the grocery shop. No. It is much more than nursing a wish.
No country runs its sports on the yearly fiscal budget because of its clumsiness. Sports competitions are run on a calendar system which gives participating countries enough time to prepare adequately for periods of one to four years. Besides, there are other tournaments that serve as qualifiers for the main events across the globe which makes it imperative that funding must be handy, not dependent on any form of bureaucracy.
The countries that excel in sporting events have systems that guarantee enough funds for the sportsmen and sportswomen to compete with the best such as tax rebates on sport-friendly firms, lotteries, and businesses owned by wealthy nationals who know what is in such a sponsorship that benefits them by the sitting government. Such financial taxes are spelled out to companies and wealthy citizens after agreements have been reached. These cast-in-stone policies are binding to all the parties to such an extent that breaches are adequately addressed to allow either of the parties to seek redress in court.
Sports is the biggest Public Relations (PR) tool that any government can use to change people’s perception of its citizenry. You need to walk along the streets whenever Nigeria has a sporting activity and see how the streets would be desolate. You would only realise that people are indoors from the thunderous roars from different houses when our sports ambassadors conquer their opponents. The descriptions of how the feats happened are compelling, especially those delivered by the native speakers of the languages in the country.
