The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has disclosed that the management parted ways with the newly appointed Super Eagles new coach, Bruno Labbadia, over inability to resolve tax issues in the contract.
NFF alleged that Labbadia, who was expected to mount the saddle as Head Coach of Nigeria’s senior men football team, Super Eagles, was demanding that the tax liabilities be involved in his salary be paid by the body and not from his salary.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian football body has disclosed that the NFF Technical Director, Coach Augustine Eguavoen, will lead the team for its September qualification matches.
President of NFF, Ibrahim Gusau, disclosed this on Friday amid reports that the football tactician never consented to the agreement before the football body announced his appointment through its official social media handle.
According to the statement, “Stringent regulations of German tax authorities have conspired to abort the agreement between the Nigeria Football Federation and Coach Bruno Labbadia for the latter to mount the saddle as Head Coach of Nigeria’s Senior Men Team, Super Eagles.
“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,”
“In the event, Technical Director of Nigeria Football Federation, 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, 7th September) and Rwanda (Kigali, 10th September)”.
It will be Eguavoen’s fourth stint in charge of the three-time African champions, after earlier experience in 2005-2007, 2010 and 2022.
