Eguavoen to boss Super Eagles as German tax regulations derail Labbadia’s appointment

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has confirmed that Bruno Labbadia’s appointment as head coach of the Super Eagles has fallen through due to stringent German tax regulations.

As a result, Augustine Eguavoen, the NFF’s Technical Director, will now lead the team for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Benin Republic on September 7th in Uyo and Rwanda on September 10th in Kigali.

This will mark Eguavoen’s fourth stint as head coach of the Super Eagles, following previous tenures in 2005-2007, 2010, and 2022. The NFF’s president, Ibrahim Gusau, explained that the federation could not meet the tax obligations tied to Labbadia’s salary, an issue that was not part of the initial agreement when his appointment was announced.

“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,” President of NFF, Gusau, said on Friday evening.

The NFF had on Tuesday announced its agreement with the German tactician to mount the saddle as the head coach of the Super Eagles.

Labbadia would have become the sixth German, after Karl-Heinz Marotzke (who had two stints between 1970 and 1974), Gottlieb Göller (1981), Manfred Höner (1988-1989), Berti Vogts (2007-2008) and Gernot Rohr (2016-2021) to lead the Super Eagles.