AFCON Qualifiers: Eagles camp opens for Benin, Rwanda ties

Super Eagles players are expected to report to their Uyo camp on Monday (today), ahead of the 2025 AFCON qualifier matches against the Benin Republic and Rwanda, according to the Nigeria Football Federation.

After a second-place finish in Ivory Coast earlier this year, the road to another showpiece, which will be played in Morocco from December 21, 2025, to January 18, 2026, begins for Nigeria against Benin Republic on Saturday, September 7, while they will face Rwanda three days later in Kigali.

The NFF released a 23-man squad for the two games last Tuesday.

Some of the early birds expected today include Fulham duo Calvin Bassey and Alex Iwobi, Ademola Lookman, Wilfred Ndidi, Moses Simon, Victor Boniface, Samuel Chukweuze, and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, who featured in league games for their clubs on Friday and Saturday.

Others expected today are Nottingham Forest duo Taiwo Awoniyi, Ola Aina, South Africa-based goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali, Olisa Ndah, Victor Osimhen, former Bendel Insurance goalkeeper Amas Obasogie, and Semilogo Ajayi.

Others, like goalkeeper Maduka Okoye, Raphael Onyedika, and Kelechi Iheanacho, are also expected as soon as possible, having featured for their clubs on Sunday.

The team will be led by NFF’s Technical Director, Augustine Eguavoen, after German coach Bruno Labbadia, who was announced as the team’s coach last Tuesday, turned down Nigeria’s offer.

According to the NFF, the arrangement with Labbadia was hampered by stringent German tax laws.

“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. It is not possible for us to shoulder the responsibility of shelling out another money, between 32 per cent and 40 per cent of his salary, after paying the agreed monthly wage,” NFF president Ibrahim Musa Gusau said on Friday evening.

“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.”