Amid the widespread rumour doing the rounds, Super Falcons’ captain, Onome Ebi, has said that there was no plan by the team to boycott the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup opener against Canada.
Nigeria pitched in group B will begin their World Cup campaign against reigning Olympic champions Canada, in Melbourne on July 21.
There are speculations that the nine-time African champions would boycott the World Cup over the treatment the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) metes out to them ahead of the 2023 Mundial.
Players of the women’s senior national team had threatened to boycott the World Cup over alleged cancellation of their match bonuses by the NFF, as well as the disclosure that they would not be paid 30 per cent from the $1,560,000 FIFA grant to all member associations for the group stage of the competition.
“I have no idea where that boycott is coming from. We [the players] never had any such conversations as regards that; we are good with training and ready for the World Cup,” Ebi told thenff.com at the team’s training camp in Gold Coast, Australia on Saturday morning.
The centre back who is making Africa record, sixth FIFA World Cup appearance pointed out that the Falcons are battle-ready for the World Cup.
“The sessions have been intense, motivating and okay. The girls are in high spirits, good shape and ready to go. The training speaks for itself as regards the mood in the camp because this is what I bargained for.
“The players are meeting up with physical and tactical aspects of training; the mood is okay,” Ebi added.
Nigeria after the July 21 opener will also face co-hosts Australia and debutants, the Republic of Ireland.
Already, there is a friction between the Super Falcons’ coach, Randy Waldrum and the nation’s soccer ruling body.
Waldrum had lamented the team’s shoddy preparation for the World Cup, as he also challenged the NFF to give account of the $960,000 grant received from FIFA for the Falcons’ preparations for the Mundial.
“My issues with the Federation are my issues, but I’m not going to be quiet anymore,” Waldrum, 66, said on a podcast show On the Whistle.
“I have a real close contact in the US that is very connected and on some of the boards at FIFA. This person told me, that in October 2022, every country was given $960,000 from FIFA to prepare for the World Cup. Where is that money? If Nigeria got it in October, why didn’t we have a camp in November?
“The other thing I found out from my FIFA connection is that if countries don’t have the money to buy the business class tickets for everybody, FIFA would front that money and buy those tickets and then just deduct it from the money you get from FIFA after the World Cup.
“So, there’s no excuse of saying ‘we didn’t have money to buy tickets, so we couldn’t have camp’ but these are the kinds of things that the people in Nigeria don’t question. Where does $960,000 go?
“Why aren’t we prepared properly?”