The Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, has announced that its proposed deal with German tactician Bruno Labbadia has been called off due to what the football federation referred to as stringent regulations from German tax authorities, Afrosport reports.
According to their statement on their social media handles, the deal to bring in Labbadia as head coach has been chalked off due to some unforeseen financial differences.
In a statement on Friday, the Nigeria Football Federation President, Ibrahim Musa Gusa said: “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 announced 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,”
Due to the collapse of the deal, Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation, Augustine Eguavoen, will now take charge of the Super Eagles for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Benin Republic and Rwanda.
This will be Eguavoen’s fourth time leading the Eagles after earlier stints in 2005-07, 2010, and 2022, including AFCON 2021, where he led Nigeria to the round of 16 before they lost 1-0 to Tunisia.
The Eagles are due to face the Cheetahs of Benin on Saturday, September 7, at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo, before jetting out to Kigali to take on Rwanda’s Amavubi at the Amahoro National Stadium.
