Nigeria's two senior national football teams, the Super Eagles and Super Falcons, will be led by interim coaches Austin Eguavoen and Justin Madugu through the end of 2024, at the very least.
Eguavoen will continue as coach of Nigeria's Super Eagles, at least through the next round of qualifiers for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, according to the NFF, while Madugu will step in to take temporary charge of the Super Falcons following the departure of Randy Waldrum last month.
The NFF say both will be in interim capacities while they continue their supposed search for substantive head coaches.
Announcing their decision in a statement last week, the NFF said: "The Executive Committee of Nigeria Football Federation on Thursday approved the recommendation of its Technical and Development Sub-Committee for the Federation's Technical Director, Coach Augustine Eguavoen to continue in his role as Head Coach of the Super Eagles, and lead the team in its 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Libya next month.
"With the departure of Mr. Randy Waldrum, the Executive Committee also approved the recommendation of the Technical and Development Sub-Committee for Coach Justin Madugu to lead the remaining technical crew and take charge of the Senior Women National Team, Super Falcons, pending the appointment of a substantive Head Coach."
But high level sources within the federation told ESPN that unless the team suffered some catastrophic results during the qualifiers, the search for a new coach for the Super Eagles is all but on ice for now, as the NFF do not have the funds to pay for a new coach.
Following the departure of Jose Peseiro earlier this year, the NFF have been in the market for a new, preferably foreign, coach. That search lingered, and with time running out before the start of World Cup qualifying, former international Finidi George was handed the job.
But two matches later, he was out, after poor results in the World Cup qualifiers and a highly-publicized spat with star striker Victor Osimhen.
Drafted in to steady the ship, Eguavoen did just that in the two games of AFCON qualifying he took charge of last month. Those results, his past successes and the federation's lean purse all but made the decision.
"Eguavoen is capable of doing the job," the NFF official told ESPN. "Right now, there are no funds to pay a foreign coach, and he has done so well in the matches he played that nobody is even talking about a foreign coach again.
"The best thing for us to do is to let him continue because there is no guarantee that a new man will come in and work any magic in the short time he will have. In fact, if he continues to do well with the team, there will be no need to appoint any coach for now."
It remains unclear how long "for now" will be, but the official suggested that there may be no movement on that front until at least early next year. The expectations after the departure of George was that the Nigerian government would directly fund the wages of a new coach, but Eguavoen's recent results have led to a cooling on that front, leaving the NFF with little wiggle room.
That is not the only responsibility that has been handed to Eguavoen. He has also been tasked with the added responsibility of taking charge of the B team for next year's Africa Nations Championship (CHAN). This means Eguavoen is now juggling three roles within the federation.
In spite of that, the former defender is allegedly not getting paid any extra. Sources within the NFF told ESPN that Eguavoen's wages as Technical Director were actually slashed this summer as part of the federation's belt-tightening measures.
The move did not go down well with the former World Cup star, and he is said to have considered resigning his position, before he was prevailed upon to remain.
The Super Falcons position is less ambiguous. American Waldrum departed with four months left of his contract, which was due to run out in December.
In what appeared to be good fortune for the NFF, they not only save four months of wages, but even better, the Super Falcons have no competitive engagements until the Africa Women Cup of Nations next year. This means they are not inclined to appoint a new coach before the second quarter of 2025.
Madugu previously took charge of the Super Falcons while the NFF were in a post-World Cup contract renegotiation with Waldrum, and he guided the team through the early rounds of Olympic qualifying, laying the foundations for the team's eventual qualification.