The Nigerian football federation have finally made statement on the bribery scandal involving Super eagle’s assistant coach Yusuf Salisu.
Yusuf Salisu who is the assistant coach of Gernot Rohr in the national team was caught on footage collecting a bribe from two strange people posed as football agent prior to the final of the 2017 CHAN games.
The video was reported by the controversial BBC journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and was recently release by the British media outfit as part of a documentary involving similar scandals of countries in the African continent.
The recent event might affect the odds for bettors using the Nairabet Affiliate code as players who are supposed to be selected prior to tournament could miss out.
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The event seems to have gathered a lot of reactions from both local and international media. While some pundit have backed the former Kano Pillars boss, other seems to doubt his credibility with Super eagles legend Victor Ikpeba reacting that the scandal is a deterrent to coaches in the country.
According to Nigeria football news, the Nigerian association for coaches seems to have given the assistant coach a vote of confidence.
After playing to the gallery in the early stages of the scandal, NFF the nation’s footballing body have finally responded to the trending news.
The NFF said on Friday “For now, the NFF have commenced preliminary investigation into the matter to assist the Committee on Ethics and Fairplay”.
The statement was signed by the football federation’s director of communication Ademola Olajire. On his part, Salisu the embattled coach have continued to hold strong resolve that he had not erred in anyway despite the overwhelming evidence of him collecting money from unknown men.
In his defense, Salisu who is currently undergoing medical treatment in London have responded that he neither asked for money nor did he make a promise to the two agents on fielding any player because of the cash offered to him.
He however insisted that the supposed participant of the tournament were picked strictly by merit and consistency as he did not compromise.
“Be that as it may, I did accept cash handed to me by one of the said football agents, which I later discovered, upon checking, to be $750 and not $1000. Nonetheless, my understanding of the FIFA and NFF Codes of Ethics, particularly Sections 20 of the said codes, is that, gifts of any kind could be accepted by persons bound by the codes which are: of symbolic or trivial value; exclude any influence for the execution or omission on an act that is related to one’s official activities or fall within one’s discretion; are not contrary to one’s duties; do not create any undue pecuniary or other advantage and do not create a conflict of interest,” the coach defended.
Similar scandal have occurred in Ghana as the saga led to dissolution of the Ghana football federation. The dissolution was enforced after Ghana football federation President was caused on a camera collecting thousands of dollars. One Fifa licensed referee in the wake of the event was forced to resign.
