Gargo moved to Udinese on free transfer - Jones
Alhassan confesses lying to the GFA
No agent was involved in Shamo's transfer - Amoako
Gargo moved to Udinese on free transfer - Jones
Accra (Greater Accra), 13th October 99
Mr. Jones Abu Alhassan, a vice chairman of Real Tamale United (RTU) has told the Gbadegbe Commission that the club is not entitled to any percentage of their former player, Mohammed Gargo's transfer fee from Torino to Udinese in Italy.
Testifying at the international player transfer probe in Accra, Mr. Alhassan said Gargo was transferred to Torino as a minor in 1991 on a five-year contract and when that expired, he moved to Udinese on a free transfer.
Mr. Alhassan said Gargo pleaded for an International Transfer Certificate (ITC) to enable him to play for Udinese since he had not played any competitive soccer for five years.
He said Gargo wrote a promissory note to give RTU 20,000 dollars out of his own resources since the club did not gain from his transfer 10 per cent of which could be deducted for the GFA but the player is yet to fulfil that obligation.
In a reaction to an allegation by Mr. Karimu 'Star boy', representative of RTU retired footballers association that the club did not have a copy of Gargo's transfer certificate, Mr. Alhassan said the club's copy was given to Mr. W.W. Zakari, secretary of the club.
Mr. Karimu, an executive member of RTU, told the Commission that the transfer certificates of other players including Shilla Alhassan to U.A.E., Agyeman Prempeh to France and Abu Iddrissu to Germany, all signed by Mr. Alhassan, contained a lot of discrepancies.
He alleged that Shilla was transferred for 10,000 dollars but 4,000 dollars was declared, Agyeman Prempeh's transfer fee is still outstanding while Iddrissu's original certificate cannot be traced.
He accused Mr. Alhassan of transferring Mohammed Tijani and Liberian, Somah Weah, a brother of George Weah, both non-players of RTU in the club's name.
Mr. Alhassan denied transferring Shilla for 10,000 dollars but said he rather sent the player to Dubai at the request of former national skipper, Abedi Pele for a one week trial with his club.
"The club paid RTU 5,000 dollars out of which I paid 1,000 dollars to the GFA instead of 500 dollars because Alhaji Dauda Jawula, the GFA chairman insisted the Association will not accept anything less than that" he said.
On Agyeman Prempeh, Mr. Alhassan said the player left for France after he had been put on the transfer list by RTU but later two men came to see him for an ITC to enable the boy to play for F.C. Bastia in France.
He said he got in touch with an agent in France called Sekou Coulibaly who was speaking on behalf of the club and it was agreed that they would pay 50,000 French Francs.
"But instead, they decided to give me 11,000 French Francs to be given to RTU for the ITC on grounds that the boy was an amateur player but I did not agree and therefore refused to take the money", he said.
Mr. Karimu rejected the assertion claiming that Agyeman did not even complete a season with RTU but they heard later that he was playing in France.
He denied Mr. Alhassan's claim that he signed the contract in the presence of Agyeman's father because the father has said that he does not know anything about it.
On Iddrissu's transfer, Mr. Alhassan admitted that he signed on behalf of Mr. Ibrahim Adam, chairman of the club because he asked him to do so and sent a copy to Tamale.
The copy was, however, different from what he had in his possession. The date on one was 23rd June and on the other it was June 23rd while there were differences in the signatures.
Mr. Alhassan could not answer how the contents of a photocopy of a certificate could be different from the original.
On the issue of Tijani and Weah, he admitted that they were not players of RTU but decided to help Tijani because he could be of benefit to RTU in the future.
He said because he was taking care of Weah's family in Ghana, he presented him as an RTU player for transfer to Anderlecht in Belgium but it eventually fizzled out.
"Weah is no more in Belgium as is being alleged but he is with a new club, formed by his brother in Liberia", he added.
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Alhassan confesses lying to the GFA
Accra (Greater Accra), 13th October 99
Mr. Jones Abu Alhassan, vice-chairman in charge of operations of RTU has confessed before the Gbadegbe Commission that he lied when he wrote a letter to the GFA from Dubai, that he had their 30,000 dollars in his 'custody'.
The money was supposed to be GFA's percentage of the transfer fee of Baba Armando and Shilla Alhassan from their club in the U.A.E.
Testifying before the Commission probing the international transfer of players, Mr. Alhassan said he used that ploy because he wanted to get the ITC of the two players, which the club was demanding before paying the transfer fees.
He said what he actually had on him was a cheque for 300,000 dollars for All Blacks in connection with Armando's transfer but not the two players.
Mr. Alhassan said the Bank for Housing and Construction refused to honour the cheque so he had to go back to Dubai with Mr. George Aduse-Poku (Georgido), Chairman of All Blacks for it.
"They, however, paid 250,000 dollars because they claimed Armando had played three matches without scoring a goal and that he was not a good player", he added.
The Commission told Mr. Alhassan that there was an appendix to the contract written in Arabic, which says that the club will pay 300,000 dollars through a cheque or 250,000 dollars cash.
Mr. Alhassan, who seemed ignorant of this, said he gave the money to Georgido who said he was going to send it to Ghana through Western Union money transfer.
"Afterwards, Georgido and I left for Holland where he later called on me in my hotel telling me that his brief case containing the money, passport and other documents had been stolen", he said.
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No agent was involved in Shamo's transfer - Amoako
Accra (Greater Accra), 13th October 99
Mr. Emmanuel Amoako, former manager of the late Shamo Quaye on Friday described as false, an assertion by Mr. Ernest Thompson, Board Secretary of Accra Hearts of Oak that 5,000 dollars was deducted from the player's enticement fee for an agent called Appiah Kubi.
Mr. Amoako, who appeared voluntarily before the Gbadegbe Commission probing the international player transfer, said there was no agent involved in Shamo's transfer from Hearts to Unea of Sweden in 1996.
"It was rather a direct contract signed between the two clubs with no third party involved".
He said Shamo was transferred for 300,000 dollars out of which, the player was supposed to earn an enticement fee of 50,000 dollars but he later rang to tell him that 44,500 dollars has been lodged in his account.
"When I contacted Mr. Thompson, he said the money was deducted for the agent to enable Shamo to travel with his wife to Sweden because the initial transfer did not include his wife", he said.
In support of his claim, Mr. Amoako who is also the secretary of the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) played back a recorded version of both conversions with Shamo and Mr. Thompson.
He said because he pursued the matter, the money has now been refunded but unfortunately the present Hearts management is creating the impression that 'Grahpic Sports' a bi-weekly on which he works has always taken a negative stance on issues affecting Hearts.
Mr. Amoako admitted that though he demanded a percentage of the transfer fee, it was because he convinced Shamo to go back to Hearts instead of Ghapoha after he had returned from Saudi Arabia in 1993.
"I negotiated a two-year contract with Hearts for him and encouraged him to sign it, and my only benefit for all that I had done for him in the past was that, I will get 15 per cent of an onward transfer to another club".
He said based on the contract, Hearts were supposed to pay Shamo a signing on fee of 16 million cedis with 50,000 cedis as his monthly allowance.
"Altogether Hearts paid 9.5 million cedis with the rest still outstanding".
Mr. Amoako appealed to the Commission to force Hearts to pay the outstanding amount since it could be of a great help to the wife and children
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