By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Technical Director, Austin Eguavoen has denied rumours making the rounds that the list of the senior women’s national team has been tampered with in recent times.
Randy Waldrum has had his list tampered with regularly, after submitting the same to the Technical Department of the Nigeria Football Federation.
The unfortunate development led to the surprise exclusion of initially listed South Korea based Chinaza Uchendu as well as purported delisting of Jennifer Echegini before the American-born was later given a late call-up for the friendlies Turkey, where she scored Nigeria’s second goal in a 3-0 win over New Zealand in April in Antalya, Turkey.
However, the former Super Eagles manager admitted receiving allegations of alternation to Waldrum’s squad list but swiftly defended his staff, stressing that they had no reason to mess with the American’s job.
“I’m a coach and what I don’t want people to do to me, I won’t do that to a fellow coach. An NFF board member also spoke to me about this, but there’s no truth at all in this,” Eguavoen told Punch Newspaper.
“You think a thing like this will happen and Waldrum will not speak out? I’m worried because I’m the face of the technical department, nobody is going to mention any other person’s name.
“That is why we need to dig this and find out the person doing this thing that I’m not aware of. I’ve taken enough sticks, things that I know nothing about. I will engage Waldrum on this,” Eguavoen told Sunday Punch.
“If someone is doing something behind me, then we should know. Then we will also call Waldrum and ask him, ‘are you sure you submitted this girl’s name?’ Then he will tell us his side of the story. There’s something wrong somewhere that we need to dig out. We must find a way out of this.
“I will ask Waldrum, if he’s the one not telling the truth we will know. I’m very sure it’s a player that is crying out, that’s why this is coming out. I have no clue about this, we have to find out where the problem is. We have to see where this is coming from, nobody is going to call any other name but Austin Eguavoen and that’s not good. I’m the head of the technical department, I’m not aware of this at all.”
Former Nigerian international, Eguavoen further revealed that he hardly saw the Falcons list last year, while away at the Nigeria Institute for Sports (NIS) in Lagos.
“Throughout last year I was in the NIS, my subordinate was working and every now and then, when the list came out, most times I didn’t see it. Ninety percent of the time I don’t see the list; then I tell my assistant to deal with it, it’s not a problem,” he continued.
“So, we need to find out if somebody is truly altering Waldrum’s list, it has to stop because the coach should be responsible for his action. If it’s true he includes a player’s name and that player’s name is missing, he should also cry out. Then we can now say, ‘Who altered the list?”
The altercation of the squad remains a major cause for worry ahead of this year’s 32-nation tournament in Australia and New Zealand where the nine-time African champions will face Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in Group B.
The West Africans are fast losing its grip on its dominance of the continent with last year’s medal-less performance at the Women’s African Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in Morocco which was won by South Africa.
For the second time, the West African giants didn’t have a podium finish at the tournament after a 1-0 loss to Zambia and concerned stakeholders will hope the issue won’t ruin the team heading to the global showpiece this summer.