The appointment of Bruno Labbadia as head coach of the Super Eagles has fallen through due to complications with German tax regulations, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has confirmed.
In light of this, the NFF announced that its Technical Director, Coach Augustine Eguavoen, will now take charge of the Super Eagles for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Benin Republic (Uyo, September 7) and Rwanda (Kigali, September 10).
This marks Eguavoen’s fourth stint leading the three-time African champions, having previously managed the team in 2005-2007, 2010, and 2022.
In a statement released on Friday, NFF President Ibrahim Gusau explained that the federation cannot cover the significant tax obligations on Labbadia’s salary imposed by German authorities.
“We have been discussing the tax issue for the past three days, and I made it clear that the NFF cannot agree to cover the additional tax percentage on his salary demanded by German tax authorities. It’s simply not feasible for us to bear an extra cost of 32% to 40% on top of the agreed monthly wage,” Gusau stated.
He added that the tax issue was not part of the initial agreement when Labbadia was offered the position. “We had reached an agreement in principle before announcing his appointment, and the tax details were never discussed. Mr. Labbadia had agreed to all terms until this tax matter arose. While we tried to be flexible in our discussions, he insisted that the NFF should cover the full tax amount, which we simply cannot do,” Gusau said.
Earlier in the week, the NFF had announced its agreement with the German coach to take over the Super Eagles. Had the deal gone through, Labbadia would have been the sixth German to lead the team, following in the footsteps of Karl-Heinz Marotzke (1970-1974), Gottlieb Göller (1981), Manfred Höner (1988-1989), Berti Vogts (2007-2008), and Gernot Rohr (2016-2021).