Nigeria’s first assistant football coach, Salisu Yusuf, has been caught on camera allegedly taking cash from men posing as football agents.
The footage was captured by controversial journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas in September 2017 – and was broadcast by BBC Africa Eye.
In an investigation led by the journalists, reporters posing as football agents for some players approached Yusuf for a conversation about players’ selection.
During the conversation, they allegedly handed Yusuf N360, 000 ($1000) and alluded to more cash incentives if he selects their players for CHAN 2018 which held in Morocco.
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“So if anything goes through and these players are able to get their contracts, you will get 15% of that contract,” one of the reporters posing as an agent told Yusuf to which he replied; “they will be in CHAN.”
The two players were eventually selected for CHAN 2018 although the investigation stated that there is no suggestion that the money given to Yusuf influenced the selection.
FIFA code of ethics states that officials should not engage in any activity that gives rise to suspicion or collect any cash gifts.
The Nigerian coach has also denied any wrongdoing, insisting that he did not promise or committed to selecting any player.
Yusuf also claimed that he never asked the reporters for money and that it was just offered to him. The coach also clarified that he received $750 not the $1000 claimed in the report.
He also claimed that he viewed the money as a trivial and symbolic value which falls within the gifts FIFA code allows for and that his influence over the players’ selection was never affected.
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