“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.”
Labbadia’s decision comes seven days before Nigeria’s 2025 AFCON qualifiers against the Benin Republic, leaving the NFF to turn to Eguavoen.
“In the event, Technical Director of Nigeria Football Federation, Coach Augustine Eguavoen, will now take charge of the Super Eagles for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Benin Republic (Uyo, September 7) and Rwanda (Kigali, September 10),” the statement added.
It will be Eguavoen’s fourth stint in charge of the three-time African champions, after earlier experience in 2005-2007, 2010 and 2022.
He was in charge of the ill-fated 2022 World Cup qualifier playoff between Nigeria and Ghana, in which the Super Eagles missed the ticket to Qatar.
Though the Nigerian offer is the first national team offer for Labbadia, a German outlet, Kicker reported that the German coach has not yet chalked off the dream of taking over a national team.
If the deal had been successful, he would have been the 37th head coach of the Super Eagles and the sixth German to handle the team.
