The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has confirmed that Bruno Labbadia will not be taking up the role of head coach for the Super Eagles, following complications related to stringent German tax regulations.
This development was announced on Friday by the NFF, which revealed that its inability to meet the additional tax obligations led to the collapse of the agreement with the German coach.
In light of this, Coach Augustine Eguavoen, the current Technical Director of the NFF, will step in as the head coach of the Super Eagles for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifying matches.
Eguavoen will lead the team in their games against Benin Republic in Uyo on September 7th and Rwanda in Kigali on September 10th.
This marks Eguavoen’s fourth stint as head coach of Nigeria’s national team, having previously held the position from 2005 to 2007, in 2010, and in 2022.
The NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, explained that the federation could not cover the additional tax percentage on Labbadia’s salary, which would be required by German tax authorities.
According to Gusau, the tax issue was not part of the initial agreement when the deal was made with Labbadia.
“We have been on the tax issue for the past three days, and I told him clearly that there was no way the NFF will agree to offset the concomitant tax percentage on his salary that will be demanded by German tax authorities. It is not possible for us to shoulder the responsibility of shelling out another money, between 32% to 40% of his salary, after paying the agreed monthly wage,” Gusau stated.
“The NFF and Mr. Labbadia reached an agreement in principle before we made the announcement that he would become the Head Coach of the Super Eagles. The tax details were never part of our discussions, and he had personally agreed to all terms before the tax issue came up.
“We were doing our best to be flexible in the discussions but he was adamant that the NFF had to pay the full tax amount as well. We simply cannot do that.”
