The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) under the leadership of Ibrahim Musa Gusau has quickly appointed Austin Eguavoen as the interim coach of the Super Eagles.
He will oversee their AFCON qualifying games next month after the Federation’s deal with German coach Bruno Labbadia fell off, despite announcing an agreement two days ago.
According to the NFF, stringent regulations imposed by German tax authorities led to the collapse of the agreement between the NFF and Coach Bruno Labbadia to appoint him as Head Coach of Nigeria’s Senior Men’s Team, the Super Eagles.
“We have been dealing with the tax issue for the past three days, and I made it clear to him that there was no way the NFF would agree to cover the tax percentage on his salary demanded by German tax authorities. It is not feasible for us to shoulder an additional cost of 32% to 40% of his salary after paying the agreed monthly wage.
“The NFF and Mr. Labbadia had reached an agreement in principle before we announced 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 arose. We tried our best to be flexible in the discussions, but he insisted that the NFF must cover the full tax amount. We simply cannot do that,” said NFF President Ibrahim Musa Gusau on Friday evening.
Coach Augustine Eguavoen, in his fourth spell after coaching the team in 2005-07, 2010, and 2022, 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).
