Morocco 2025: NFF settles for Eguavoen as stand -in coach as disagreement over tax scuppers appointnent of Labbadia as Manager
By Nnamdi Okosieme
The appointment of former German international, Bruno Labbadia as coach of Super Eagles foundered yesterday following disagreement between the two parties over who pays tax percentage of his salary demanded by German tax authorities, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), has disclosed.
This revelation is coming barely 48 hours after Labbadia was announced as the new gaffer of the senior national men’s team.
NFF General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi, that the issue of payment of the tax had been a sticky point during negotiations.
“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, Ibrahim Musa Gusau, said on Friday evening.
Labbadia, who earned two caps for the German national team has coached current and former German Bundesliga teams including Bayer Leverkusen, Hamburger SV, VfB Stuttgart, Hertha Berlin and VfL Wolfsburg
As a face-saving measure, the football federation has directed Augustine Eguavoen, its Technical Director, to take charge of the 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.
