Peseiro, Waldrum to know fate Sept — NFF
By bintu jidda kanempress
16 august 2023
The Nigeria Football Federation plans to end the lingering contract issues of the Super Eagles and the Super Falcons coaches before their respective assignments in September.
This is as a result of the uncertainty over the contracts of Jose Peseiro, who handles the Eagles, and Randy Waldrum, who just led the Falcons to the round of 16 at the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Both coaches are deemed to have seen out their respective contracts with the NFF, but President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Ibrahim Gusau on Tuesday, said the NFF would make a decision on both coaches next month.
According to Gusau, the NFF is still on it and very soon Nigerians will get the information about the issue of the coaches.
He said in September the Super Eagles Eagles have the last match of the AFCON qualifiers against Sao Tome, so before then, everything will be concluded.
Eagles coach Peseiro was appointed in May 2022, but the clause of qualifying and reaching the final 2023 AFCON in Ivory Coast which will now be played in January 2024 has cast doubts on whether he will continue on the job till next year as his contract is reported to have expired.
Gusau said basically, what the contract talks are about is that coach Peseiro should qualify the team to the Nations Cup and also lead the team to the final, but unfortunately, CAF shifted the tournament to January, so it has affected the whole situation.
On Falcons, following its impressive display at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Gusau maintained that the technical committee of the NFF would determine if Waldrum would be retained.
The NFF president gave assurances that it will also be sorted before Falcons’ Paris 2024 Olympic Games qualifiers against Ethiopia in September.
In a poll conducted by some stakeholders in June, 64 per cent of respondents against 21 per cent said the NFF should not retain Peseiro, while 15 per cent were indifferent about the Portuguese coach.
In Waldrum’s case, many fans also backed him to keep his job despite his soured relationship with his employers before the World Cup.
