Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has confirmed that the appointment of Bruno Labbadia as the head coach of the Super Eagles has been blocked by German tax authorities.
Gatekeepers News reports that the NFF stated that the stringent regulations of the German tax law made it impossible for them to meet the tax demands, leading to the cancellation of Labbadia’s appointment.
In a statement released by the NFF, President Ibrahim Gusau explained that the issue of offsetting the coach’s tax was not part of the initial agreement before the announcement of his appointment.
“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 said.
Gusau added that the NFF and Labbadia had reached an agreement in principle before the announcement, but the tax details were never part of their discussions.
“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,” Gusau said.
As a result, Technical Director of the NFF, Coach Augustine Eguavoen, will now take charge of the Super Eagles for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Benin Republic and Rwanda.
This will be Eguavoen’s fourth stint in charge of the team, after earlier experiences in 2005-2007, 2010, and 2022.
