The Nigeria Football Federation’s agreement with German Bruno Labbadia to become the new head coach of Nigeria’s men’s national team, Super Eagles has been botched due to stalled contract negotiations.
The 58-year-old German tactician pulled out of the deal with the NFF on Friday.
This comes just a few days after the NFF announced on August 27 that it had reached an agreement with the German tactician to become Super Eagles’ head coach.
Labbadia was identified as replacement for football legend Finidi George who resigned as Super Eagles head coach in June, barely one month after he was appointed by the NFF.
Technical Director of Nigeria Football Federation, Augustine Eguavoen will now lead the Super Eagles for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Benin Republic in Uyo, and Rwanda, in Kigali, on September 7 and 10 respectively.
In a statement on Friday evening, the President of NFF, Ibrahim Musa Gusau, said stringent regulations of German tax authorities was the reason for the botched agreement between the Federation and the German to coach the Super Eagles.
Gusau said, “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.
“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.”
It will be Eguavoen’s fourth stint as Super Eagles coach after taking charge in 2005-2007, 2010 and 2022.
