Black Stars coach Kwesi Appiah has stated emphatically stated he has never taken a bribe before handing a call-up to any player in his coaching career.
Many football lovers believe coaches especially those handling national teams take bribe from players before handling them invitations to represent their countries but the former Asante Kotoko defender says never will he be involving in such corrupt practices.
Appiah when asked in an interview with Accra based Happy FM if he had taken a bribe from any player before in his career he stated that he will never do that.
He however warned his technical staff he will relieve whoever does that from his duties in the team.
“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,” says Appiah .
“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.”
He added “If you have a player and maybe he’s good, but because of trying to induce me to call him will even make me lose interest in the player. Because I believe if the player is good you don’t need to pay any bribe before he can earn a call up.”
“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 once I’ll sack whoever does that from my team,” Appiah concluded.
