Abdulazeez Abdulwahab
ALL is certainly not well with the management of football in Nigeria by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Another clear indication of the maladministration is the handling of the appointment of a new coach for the senior national team, the Super Eagles.
On Tuesday, the NFF announced the appointment of a German, Bruno Labbadia as the new coach of the Super Eagles following the sudden resignation of Coach Finidi George. However, Eighteen-Eleven Media can authoritatively report that the German tactician may have turned down the appointment owing to issues around tax payments to German authorities.
A release by the NFF states that Coach Augustine Eguavoen will now take charge of the team for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Benin Republic (Uyo, 7th September) and Rwanda (Kigali, 10th September).
According to the statement, stringent regulations of German tax authorities conspired to abort the agreement between the NFF and Coach Labbadia for the latter to mount the saddle as Head Coach of Nigeria’s Senior Men’s Team, Super Eagles.
Quoting the President of NFF, Ibrahim Musa Gusau, the release stated: “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,”
Eighteen-Eleven Media