Chief coach of the CHAN Super Eagles of Nigeria Salisu Yusuf has been caught on camera taking $1,000 from fake football agents who wanted him to select two players for the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN).
As the chief coach of the Super Eagles, Yusuf is in charge of the Super Eagles home-based side and an assistant to Gernot Rohr for the Super Eagles.
He was in charge of the Super Eagles Team B to the 2017 WAFU and 2018 CHAN where they lost in both finals.
In an investigation led by Ghanaian journalists Anas Aremeyaw, reporters posing as football agents for some players approached Yusuf in September 2017 for a conversation about players’ selection.
During the conversation, they handed the Nigerian coach N360, 000 ($1000) and alluded to more cash incentives if he selects their players for CHAN 2018 which held in Morocco.
The clip has been made public by BBC African Eye.
Money for players?
“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.
Although he told the reporters that team selection is based solely on performances, Yusuf, a top Nigerian coach will be facing the wrath of FIFA, CAF and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Under the FIFA code of ethics, officials should not engage in any activity that gives rise to suspicion or collect any cash gifts.
“You know in football it is supposed to be consistency and form,” Yusuf is heard telling the reporters in the clip.
The 56-year-old coach has also denied any wrongdoing, insisting that he did not promise or committed to selecting any player.
He 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.
Watch the leaked video below:
Chief Coach of the Super Eagles Salisu Yusuf has been caught on camera taking cash from reporters posingas football agents who wanted their players to be selected for CHAN 2018 pic.twitter.com/EQ73kjK7a1— Steve Dede (@DizSteve) July 24, 2018
He also believes that he was never in breach of FIFA or NFF ethics code.
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