African football has been rocked by another bribery scandal after Super Eagles assistant coach Salisu Yusuf was filmed by an undercover journalist last year allegedly receiving a bribe to include two unnamed players in his squad for the Morocco 2018 African Nations Championship.
The former Kano Pillars and Enyimba manager thus joined the list of African football personalities who have been implicated in bribery scandals.
Former CAF and FIFA executive member Amos Adamu, former Ghana Football Association president Kwesi Nyantakyi and Kenyan referee Aden Marwa were banned by the world football body after being filmed by undercover journalists either demanding or receiving cash gifts to influence their decisions.
A BBC footage published on Tuesday showed Salisu allegedly receiving a cash gift said to be $1,000 from investigative Ghanaian journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who reportedly implicated Nyantakyi after he allegedly demanded bribes and received kickbacks.
In the video, the coach, who helped Nigeria win silver at the 2018 CHAN, was promised 15 per cent of the fee if the players made his squad for the tournament.
The BBC said the footage was part of a wider investigation into corruption in African football by Anas. But Salisu has denied any wrongdoing after the sting video.
He confirmed meeting with two persons who introduced themselves as football agents and that they had a discussion about players for the CHAN in his letter to BBC.
“I can remember giving them my honest answer to the end that if the said players were found suitable in the selection process, they would indeed be selected,” he wrote.
“I did accept $750 handed to me by one of the two agents to the two Nigerian players only as a gift of trivial and symbolic value and not as an inducement to play the two players represented by the two agents as Anas Aremeyaw Anas and Tiger Eye would want you to believe.”
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi told KweséESPN that the organisation would launch an internal investigation.
“We have seen the video on the internet, just like everybody else, and these are very serious allegations,” Sanusi said.
“We will be carrying out an internal investigation.”
