Labbadia according to a German website cancelled the deal because of the “public rush” to announce his arrival
By Kehinde Okeowo
German tactician, Bruno Labbadia, has turned down the opportunity to coach the Super Eagles three days after the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) announced he had agreed a deal.
His decision not to take the job was disclosed on Friday via a report published by the German website Kicker.
NFF had announced Labbadia’s appointment on Tuesday, positioning him as the successor to Finidi George, who resigned in May.
But the report from German claimed Labbadia has now cancelled the deal because of the “public rush” to announce his arrival.
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NFF later confirmed the development in a statement, citing “tax issue” as the cause of the contract collapse.
“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.
The football body also said Technical Director of the NFF, Austin Eguavoen 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).