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Soccer News of Wednesday, 24 April 2002

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GFA reveal coach scam

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has uncovered a fraud syndicate based in Europe, which attempts to defraud European football coaches under the pretext of securing them contracts with the Black Stars. GFA chairman, Ben Koufie says he learnt about the activities of the syndicate about a month ago when he was asked to confirm a letter he was supposed to have signed, asking coaches to apply for the jobs in Ghana. The letter said among other things that Ghana would pay the coach who gets the job a $25,000 monthly salary.
Mr. Koufie told Joy FM that he received a similar letter on Monday, with the same figures being quoted as the salary and other entitlements of the coach. The syndicate seems to have taken advantage of Ghana’s search for a new coach for the national football team to defraud people.
The GFA Chairman explained that the syndicate manage to entice their culprits to pay an amount of money to facilitate the transaction. They then bring their culprits to Ghana and manage to send them to the offices of the Ghana Football Association. After asking their culprits to wait under the pretext of contacting GFA officials for formal introduction, they vanish into thin air.
Mr. Ben Koufie says a copy of the letter he was purported to have signed was on a fake letterhead. The signature was also a forged one. None of the coaches who applied for the Black Stars coaching job applied through the syndicate. The GFA hopes to appoint a substantive coach for the national team before the end of this week.