THE Technical Director of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Augustine Eguavoen, would now take charge of the Super Eagles and lead the senior national team for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Benin Republic in Uyo on September 7 and Kigali, Rwanda Kigali, on September 10.
This would be Eguavoen’s fourth stint in charge of the three-time African champions, after earlier experience in 2005 to 2007, 2010 and 2022.
This followed the collapse of the deal between the NFF and German, Bruno Labbadia, who was earlier announced as the new Super Eagles coach on Tuesday, August 27.
A statement by NFF’s Director of Communications, Ademola Olajire, on Friday, August 30, quoted the Federation’s President, Musa Gusau, as saying that the deal between the NFF and Labbadia had been botched due to stringent regulations of German tax authorities.
“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.
