German coach, Bruno Labbadia, has backed out of Super Eagles job on tax grounds.
Labbadia’s appointment had been in the news only for the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF President, Ibrahim Musa Gusau to announce on Friday that the German has rejected the job due to both parties’ inability to reach agreement on who to take responsibility for tax payment to the government of Germany.
“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,” Gusau said on Friday evening.
Due to irreconcilable difference, the responsibility of leading the Eagles for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Benin Republic (Uyo, 7th September) and Rwanda (Kigali, 10th September) now falls on the Technical Director of Nigeria Football Federation, Coach Augustine Eguavoen.
