Black Stars Coach, James Kwasi Appiah, has fervently denied reports that he has ever taken bribes from Black Stars players to influence call-ups into the national team.
Appiah, who is returning to coach the Black Stars for the second time and several other national team coaches, have been accused of taking huge amounts of money from players before giving them opportunities to represent the nation.
But when asked on whether he has ever taken inducements from players to play for Ghana, the former Al Khartoum coach said he has never taken bribe in his entire career, and thus warned his current technical team and players who attempt such acts to desist from it.
Appiah disclosed that he will not hesitate to sack any member of his technical staff who engages in such corrupt acts.
“You can’t even try it because I’m rich in my own way. When they say somebody is rich, it does not mean you have money to look after the whole Ghana but you’re called a rich man because you have your peace of mind. You can have whatever you want at any given time without nobody’s help, that’s how you are considered rich,” Appiah said.
“If I have let’s say GHC 1,000 and I know that’s enough to take care my family, I’m content with it so why should I try to seek for more from people, but it’s like people know my character so they don’t approach me with such talks”. Appiah continued.
The 57-year-old added that: “If you have a player and maybe he’s good, but because of trying to induce me to grant him a call up will even make me lose interest in the player because I believe if the player is good, he does not require to pay any bribe before he earns a call up”.
He noted that “People may have the thinking that they can go and talk to my assistants in regards to giving their clients call ups, but I always tell my assistants that if any of them allow himself to be induced by any agent and I hear about it, I’ll have no option than to sack you that very day because if you allow yourself to be used by players agents before handing him a call up, what control would you have over the player?.
“The agent will not respect you as a coach likewise the player. Once you do that, the player will tell his other colleagues, and automatically you’ll lose your respect, so I don’t condone that kind of behaviour. It’s my hope that none of my technical team will ever try to do that because I’ll sack whoever does that from my team,” Appiah stated.
I don’t take bribe – Kwesi Appiah
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