By Mustapha Habeeb
August 31st, 2024
The Nigeria Football Federation has appointed Coach Augustine Eguavoen, its Technical Director, to assume the role of Super Eagles Head Coach, subsequent to Coach Bruno Labbadia’s withdrawal due to complexities with German tax authorities.
According to NFF “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% 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,” President of NFF, Ibrahim Musa Gusau, said on Friday evening.
Eguavoen will lead the team in the forthcoming AFCON 2025 qualifying matches against Benin Republic and Rwanda, commencing his fourth tenure as coach of the three-time African champions, building on his prior experience in 2005-2007, 2010, and 2022.