Eguavoen takes charge of Super Eagles as tax law scuttles German Labbadia’s appointment

Former handler Augustine Eguavoen will lead the Super Eagles in their AFCON 2025 qualifiers against Benin Republic and Rwanda next week following the snub from newly hired head coach, Bruno Labbadia.

Ibrahim Gusau, the president of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), announced late on Friday that the German tactician has declined the job due to his inability to “agree to offset the concomitant tax percentage on his salary that will be demanded by German tax authorities.”

Gusau noted that regulations of German tax authorities have conspired to abort the agreement between the NFF and Labbadia for the latter to mount the saddle as Head Coach of Nigeria’s Senior Men Team, the Super Eagles.

“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% and 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 our discussions, but he was adamant that the NFF had to pay the full tax amount as well. We simply cannot do that,” Gusau said.

Following the latest development, 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 qualifying matches against Benin Republic (Uyo, 7th September) and Rwanda (Kigali, 10th September).