Morocco 2025: Eguavoen to lead Eagles as German tax laws ruin NFF-Labbadia deal

Strict regulations from the German tax authorities have conspired to abort the agreement between the two parties. Nigerian Football Federation and coach Bruno Labbadia for the latter to jump on board as head coach of Nigeria’s senior men’s team, Super Eagles.

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“We have been discussing the tax issue for three days and I have told him clearly that there is no way the NFF will agree to offset the percentage of taxes that the German tax authorities will demand from his salary. It is not possible for us to assume the responsibility of disbursing another amount of money, between 32% and 40% of his salary, after paying the agreed monthly salary.

“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.

“Tax details were never part of our discussions, and he had personally agreed to all the terms before the tax issue arose. We tried our best to be flexible in the discussions, but he insisted that the NFF had to pay the full amount of taxes as well. We simply cannot do that,” NFF president Ibrahim Musa Gusau said on Friday evening.

At the event, the Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation, Coach Augustine Eguavoen, will now take charge of the Super Eagles for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Benin Republic (Uyo, 7^He September) and Rwanda (Kigali, 10^He September).

This will be Eguavoen’s fourth stint at the helm of the three-time African champion, after his previous experiences in 2005-2007, 2010 and 2022.

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