The interim coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Austine Eguavoen almost left his role as technical director of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) according to a report on ESPN written by foremost Nigerian journalist Colin Udoh.
In his article on the reason why the NFF appointed Eguavoen as interim coach of the men’s senior national team of Nigeria and Justin Madugu as the interim coach on the women’s team, Udoh said a lack of finance forced the NFF into making the decision.
“Eguavoen is capable of doing the job,” an official of the NFF was quoted as saying by 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”, he stated.
Colin went further to reveal that Eguavoen almost left his role as technical director, the position that saw him stepped into the vacant managerial role after his salary was slashed by the NFF in the summer.
“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”, he wrote.
” 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”, he concluded.