“There is nothing in the allegation pointing to a demand for the money from the agents of the two principals…”
Coach Salisu Yusuf has denied he took money from undercover journalists led by Ghana’s Anas Aremeyaw Anas, posing as football agents to select two players for this year’s CHAN in Morocco.
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A sting video, which had been aired on the various platforms of the BBC showed Yusuf collecting a reported $1,000 to pick two players from the 2017 WAFU Nations Cup in Ghana for the 2018 CHAN in Morocco.
In his prepared defence, Salisu, who is undergoing medical treatment in London, said he neither asked for the money nor did he promise the agents he would pick the players because of the cash they gave him.
He instead claimed that players were picked on merit and their consistency.
“There is nothing in the allegation pointing to a demand for the money from the agents of the two principals. Rather, the agent only handed the money to me after expressing ‘hope’ that the principals would play in the Championship.
“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.