Eguavoen to lead Eagles, as German tax laws botch NFF/Labbadia deal
By Victor Okoye
The deal between the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and new Super Eagles coach Bruno Labbadia has been aborted.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NFF had announced on Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with German coach Labbadia to become the Super Eagles’ Head Coach.
However, a statement by Ademola Olajire, NFF’s Director of Communications, on Friday quoted the NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, as saying that the deal had been botched.
Gusau explained that stringent regulations of German tax authorities had conspired to abort the agreement between the NFF and Labbadia.
“We have been on the tax issue for the past three days.
“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 per cent to 40 per cent of his salary, after paying the agreed monthly wage.
“The NFF and 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,” Gusau said.
He added that, with the latest development, Technical Director of Nigeria Football Federation, Augustine Eguavoen, will now take charge of the Super Eagles.
Eguavoen will lead the team for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Benin Republic in Uyo Saturday and Kigali, Rwanda on Sept. 10.
NAN reports that this would be Eguavoen’s fourth stint in charge of the three-time African champions, after earlier experiences in 2005 to 2007, 2010 and 2022.(NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Joseph Edeh
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