Nigeria call off deal with new coach Bruno Labbadia

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Friday announced that they have called off the appointment of Bruno Labbadia as the country’s coach after contract talks broke down.

On Tuesday, the NFF announced Labbadia as the new coach of the Super Eagles with “immediate effect”.

However, that appointment is no longer tenable, the NFF said in a statement.

NFF president Ibrahim Gusau said “stringent” tax laws in Germany have made it impossible to go ahead with Labbadia’s 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,” NFF president Ibrahim Gusau explained in an official statement.

“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 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.”

On account of this development, the NFF technical director Augustine Eguavoen will now lead Nigeria for 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Benin and Rwanda.

An official statement announced the appointment of Eguavoen for the matches against Benin (September 7) and Rwanda (September 10).

It will be Eguavoen’s fourth stint in charge of the three-time African champions after 2005-2007, 2010 and 2021-2022.