Bruno Labbadia
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Bruno Labbadia, the German tactician, who was announced as the new coach of Nigeria’s senior male football team, the Super Eagles, has reportedly turned down the offer.
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, had on Tuesday announced that the German would take charge of the Super Eagles.
However, that announcement was made by the football house without first reaching contractual agreement with the 58-year-old German.
This error may be the reason the former Germany international striker now rejected the chance to manage the three-time African champions.
However, in another development, the botched deal was blamed on the stringent German tax regulations.
According to the NFF president Ibrahim Musa Gusau, the federation and Labbadia had been on the tax issue for three days although they had reached an agreement in principle.
In a statement, Gussu said: “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.”
Labaddia was initially expected to take charge of the Super Eagles for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying fixtures against Benin Republic and Rwanda.
As it is, the technical director of the NFF, Austin Eguavoen, would now be expected to take charge of the Super Eagles for both games.
