Eguavoen back in charge of Super Eagles as NFF calls off Labbadia deal
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has pulled out of the agreement to appoint Bruno Labbadia as the head coach of the Super Eagles head.
The 58-year-old German was announced by the NFF as the new head coach of the senior men’s national team on Tuesday, and he was expected to take charge of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers next week.
However, Eguavoen, who led the team to a round of 16 exit at the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon, will step in for the fixtures against Benin Republic on September 7 in Uyo and Rwanda on September 10 in Kigali.
“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,” the NFF said in a press release on Friday night.
NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, gave further clarification on how the deal for Labbadia waa scuppered, citing German tax laws.
“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,” Gusau explained.
“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.”
Former Super Eagles captain Eguavoen, who is NFF Technical Director, is having his fourth spell in charge of the three-time African champions, after handling the team in 2005 to 2007, 2010 and 2022.
