The fluorenyl-phosphazene ligand 2 has been prepared and coordinated to the Rh-I(nbd) fragment. X-ray analyses and DFT calculations substantiate the preference of the resulting complex 3 for kappa(2)-N, C over eta(5)-fluorenyl coordination. Despite the associated geometry constraint, the coordination of the short phosphazene sidearm is shown to enforce eta(1)-fluorenyl coordination.