Global Perspectives

Nigeria, Jamaica, South Africa: Women’s World Cup success stories shining light on inequality

Randy Waldrum was perhaps the only person in the room who was not surprised by what had just happened.

As tens of thousands of shell-shocked Matildas fans filtered out of Lang Park in Brisbane, the Nigerian head coach walked casually into the post-game media conference, looked around at the wide-eyed journalists clamouring for answers, and took a small sip of his drink.

Having just defeated Women’s World Cup co-hosts and title fancies Australia 3-2, following their 0-0 draw against Olympic gold medallists Canada a week earlier, Waldrum was — on the outside, at least — nonplussed.

He spoke plainly, politely, but with the kind of tone that seemed to say: have you not been paying attention?

Three Nigeria teammates celebrate with Chiamaka Nnadozie after the Women's World Cup match against Canada.

Nigeria’s results against Canada and Australia show African teams can compete on the world stage — so long as they’re given the opportunity.(AAP: Morgan Hancock)

“I’m so proud of these players because so many people didn’t believe,” he said.

“So many people didn’t believe in me, and didn’t believe in the team. The one thing we had done is we talked about believing in each other, and strength of our success is going to be about the unity in the team.

“To think we’ve come here and got two results out of two top teams in the world says a lot not about our ability, but also our heart and competitive desire that the team has.

“I told them after the match: keep believing in yourself. Because great things can happen for teams when you really fight for each other. It’s not always the best talent that wins, sometimes it’s the best team.”

Fighting for each other is something that Nigeria has had to do a lot lately, not just when facing difficult opponents on the field, but facing them off it, too.

The seven-time African champions have had one of the most disrupted lead-ups to this World Cup of any competing nation, with their preparation for this tournament overshadowed by accusations of delayed player and coach payments, cancelled camps and warm-up friendlies, and administrative meddling in squad and staff selections.

It’s not the first time: back in 2019, Nigeria’s national team staged a sit-in protest at their hotel in France to draw attention to the unpaid bonuses the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) had owed them for qualifying.

Those disputes have continued for years, suggesting deep-rooted structural and cultural problems within Nigerian football that have, clearly, not been resolved.

In the weeks before the 2023 edition kicked off, the NFF’s general secretary Mohammed Sanusi revealed to the squad that, because FIFA would be paying players directly for qualifying for the tournament (in order to escape the administrative quagmire of federations, ironically), the NFF felt they had no need to pay their separate, previously agreed-upon bonuses.

Waldrum, for his part, did not hold back from sharing his thoughts about working within such an organisation, airing the NFF’s dirty laundry on a number of public podcasts, with the federation seriously considering firing him the week before the tournament began.

So chaotic were things behind the scenes that the players were on the verge of boycotting their opening game against Canada (but after discussions with FIFPro, the global players’ union, the game went ahead as planned).

As the USA illustrated after winning the 2019 event while in a dispute with their own federation over equal pay and treatment, success is often a team’s best bargaining tool.

Nigeria’s progress out of the group stage — with two draws and a win — has only served to strengthen the players’ position and highlighted their individual and collective ability to perform despite their federation, not because of it.

The same can be said for Jamaica, who made it through to the round of 16 for the first time ever after drawing 0-0 with powerhouse Brazil on Wednesday night.


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