The Nigerian Women's Team was widely reported to be planning to boycott their World Cup opening game against Canada after increasing conflict with the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) over unpaid bonuses, insufficient preparation and more. However, the Super Falcons' twitter account today (July 8) shared a video of captain Onome Ebi firmly denying the rumour.
🔊:"No idea where the story is coming from" - 💭🇳🇬 captain, Onome Ebi dispels media rumours about boycott threats ahead of 2023 Women's World Cup #SoarSuperFalcons #FIFAWWC #TeamNigeria pic.twitter.com/NTPaQcxWjo
— NGSuper_Falcons (@NGSuper_Falcons) July 8, 2023
"I have no idea where that is coming from. We never had any such conversations as regards that; we are good with training and ready for the World Cup," said the defender.
The Republic of Ireland's last group game is against Nigeria. Group B also includes co-hosts Australia.
Boycott or no, the Nigerian team is facing an array of problems.
Head Coach Randy Waldrum has been outspoken about the obstacles the team has faced, including the recent cancellation of a 10-12 day pre-World Cup training camp in Nigeria.
"We have fewer days than a college preseason to prepare for the World Cup, and it blows my mind because we have known about this since last year," he explained.
The NFF is also accused of failing to pay players bonuses they're already owed, and of additionally reneging on their promise to pay them 30% of the overall tournament fee Fifa pays to each national association.
A similar grievance led to the team staging a two-day sit-in in their hotel during last year's African Cup of Nations. According to Waldrum, "the federation flew in...and brought a little bit of money and pacified them."
"But they met with the team and... one of my goalkeepers spoke out and said, 'Look, I've been in this program over 15 years, as a youth player all the way to the senior team, and every year you tell us the same thing.' They didn't like the way she said it, so she dismissed her from the team. Cut her altogether."
Waldrum says that when he refused NFF's suggested replacement for the goal they retaliated by refusing to allow him to bring his assistant coach Lauren Gregg to Australia. Similarly, striker Desire Oparanozie was stripped of her captaincy after she led the protest at the 2019 World Cup — another response to unpaid bonuses.
The NFF has responded aggressively, saying that "instead of admitting his glaring deficiencies, [Waldrum is] there shooting his mouth off."
"Two weeks ago, he released his final list of 23, meaning there was absolutely no need for any camping for home-based [players] except simply to waste resources."
So how did the rumour get started?
An unnamed player was quoted by many news outlets as saying, "We are going ahead to press for our demands. We are ready to go as far as missing our first game against Canada July 21 because this has to stop."
"Since the federation is treating us like this, we have decided to stage a protest before the competition begins, so that the whole world will know what we are passing through. We can't keep suffering and smiling.
"At the last World Cup, the same thing happened and we were shortchanged, we won't allow this to happen any longer.
"They dare not treat the Super Eagles like this. Is it because we are women? We must put a stop to this this time around."
The Independent.ie and the Sydney Morning Herald source the quote from Nigerian newspaper The Punch, but The Punch's website blames the story on "a leading Nigerian newspaper (not The Punch)."
