TheCable

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) dropped the ball in the failed bid to appoint Randy Waldrum as coach of the Super Falcons, TheCable can report.

The American coach put pen to paper with the University of Pittsburgh on Tuesday, months after the NFF had announced its recommendation of Waldrum to take over from Florence Omagbemi.

Email correspondence made available to TheCable showed that the former Houston Dash coach opted for the Pittsburgh varsity women’s team on the ground of “very little” communication from the NFF.

Waldrum, in the email sent to Amaju Pinnick, the NFF president, on Monday, December 18, explained why he decided to turn down the offer made to him three months ago.

He also copied the technical department of the federation in the email.

“I was offered a position here in the US this week, and I have accepted the position. I want to thank you so much for wanting me to coach for you and the NFF,” Waldrum wrote in the email seen by TheCable.

“Unfortunately for over 3 months, I’ve not had any (or very little) communication with the NFF, so I just don’t know enough about the job there. It’s unfortunate as I had to make a decision based on the information I had.

“I wish you nothing but the best, and I hope you understand that in light of everything I have to do what is best for my family.”

NFF board ‘grudgingly’ bowed to Pinnick

TheCable learnt that Pinnick insisted on the employment of Waldrum as Super Falcons’ coach.

A top official at the NFF revealed that the board had to “grudgingly accept” Pinnick’s wish.

“It was not the American coach that we wanted to engage his services but the president, Amaju, was the one that said we must take Waldrum by force,” the official told TheCable.

“He told us that he is a very good coach and that he had consulted widely on him.

“The entire board had to bow to Pinnick foisting the man on us at a meeting in Jos. We had no choice than to grudgingly accept.”

‘No formal agreement with Waldrum’

Subsequently, Waldrum was contacted via telephone and a “gentleman’s agreement” was reached, the NFF official said.

According to the official, there was neither a written agreement nor a meeting with Waldrum in spite of the NFF’s announcement in October.

The official said: “It was there and then that we contacted the man on phone to have some sort of gentleman agreement.

“We never went to meet him in the US or we never invited him to Nigeria for a formal agreement or anything.

“In fact, the man never even applied for the job in the first place. We asked questions but Pinnick insisted on him.”

Despite winning the 2016 African Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) with the Super Falcons, Omagbemi, the interim coach, was not offered a fresh contract.