Since the resignation of Finidi George as Super Eagles Coach, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF has been in search of a new coach for the senior national team. Whispers from the media and many sports analysts attribute this lack of interest for the job to either poor remuneration or corruption on the part of officials of the NFF.
It was reported that the Football Federation is in search of a sponsor that can take up the payment of these foreign coaches and their assistants, after a failed attempt to secure the service of its number one target and two-time Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, winner, Herve Renard, who asked to be paid the sum of $180,000 (about N253m) monthly, among several other conditions, which was difficult to accept by the NFF.
Many believed that the second man on the list of the nation’s football governing body, former Swede Coach, Janne Andersson, it was just a matter of time for him to be announced as the new head coach, but again it did not work out, until the NFF eventually claimed to have settled for two-capped German International, Bruno Labbadia as the senior men’s team coach, unfortunately the German has snubbed the job.
Bruno Labbadia’s appointment was announced by the NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, in the early hours of Tuesday, August 27, saying his appointment was “with immediate effect” but without giving any details of the contract duration. “The NFF Executive Committee has approved the recommendation of its Technical and Development Sub-Committee to appoint Mr. Bruno Labbadia as the Head Coach of the Super Eagles. The appointment is with immediate effect,” the statement said.
Labbadia’s immediate task was to take charge of the Super Eagles 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign with a Group D tie home match against Benin in Uyo on September 7 and away to Rwanda three days later. And was expected to spend the rest of the year focusing on qualifying the Super Eagles for the next Cup of Nations finals, which will be hosted by Morocco in late 2025.
However, the German tactician allegedly hired by the NFF, has rejected the offer of becoming the new coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, according to German publication, Kicker, online.
According to the report, Labbadia and the NFF were not able to agree on salary and other entitlements.
In 2016, the federation named Paul Le Guen as Technical Advisor, only for the Frenchman to reject the role, citing unpalatable terms and conditions as his reason of rejecting the offer.
Similarly, in 2017, Randy Waldrum, was announced as the Super Falcons coach, but he too declined due to unresolved contractual matters, leading to the eventual appointment of Swede Thomas Dennerby.
In May 2020, the Punch revealed the reason ex England Manager, late Sven-Goran Eriksson turned down the Super Eagles job.
According to Punch, the former Three times Lions Manager said that the NFF wanted to take part of his salary. “After a while, I was called into the room with a Chairman who declared that they wanted me as a coach, but with the provision that my salary would be divided into two parts: one that would be paid into my account and another that would be deposited into another account that was not in my name. There and then I rejected the offer even while still standing.,” he said.
Jose Peseiro, who led Nigeria to a second-place finish at this year’s AFCON, was initially announced without finalising his contract, leading to weeks of uncertainty before he officially took on the role.
Recently, former Manchester United Assistant Coach, Steve McClaren, was reported to be in advanced talks with the NFF, having made the final shortlist of potential managers for the Super Eagles plum job some weeks ago.
As speculation grew that McClaren was on the verge of being appointed, the Nigerian football community was taken by surprise when he was named the head coach of the Jamaican men’s team instead. A report emerged that McClaren chose to turn down the opportunity to coach Nigeria because the federation’s leadership went silent on finalising the 63-year-old’s appointment.
The NFF’s handling of coaching appointments has drawn criticism over the years, and the current situation with Labbadia only adds to the concerns.
The Football Federation in covering their faces said that the German didn’t reject the job, rather stringent regulations of German tax authorities conspired to abort the agreement between the NFF and Coach Labbadia.
“We have been on the tax issue for the past three days, and I told him clearly that there was no way the NFF would agree to offset the concomitant tax percentage on his salary that will be demanded by German tax authorities. We can’t shoulder the responsibility of bringing 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 Gusau said.
However, the Football Federation has confirmed that ex-international and technical director, Austin Eguavoen, will handle the Super Eagles in their 2025 AFCON qualifiers against the Benin Republic in Uyo on September 7 and Rwanda in Kigali, on September 10.
This will make it the fourth time Eguavoen would be taking charge of the Super Eagles job in recent time.
By Benprince Ezeh
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