Former Asante Kotoko captain Yusif Chibsah has provided reasons why Tunisian giants Espérance Sportive de Tunis are refusing to pay the $150k transfer fee for midfielder, Kwame Bonsu, affectionately called Kwame Conte.

The three times African champions came for the 24-year old (Kwame Bonsu) in 2019 as a replacement for Ivorian Franck Kom who left the Tunisians to join Qatari side Al-Rayyan SC but have since refused to pay the transfer fee to Asante Kotoko.

According to Chibsah, who is the agent of Conte and the leader of the agency that brokered the deal, Esperance are alleging that the Porcupine Warriors are owing them a sum of $180k for the case involving Emmanuel Clottey and Kotoko is even supposed to give them a balance of $30k to settle the debt.

"They said Asante Kotoko are owing them $180k dollars so Kotoko should rather pay them back $30k and I asked them how Kotoko came to be indebted to them. They sent a copy of the decision from FIFA on the Clottey case to me and I also sent it to the lawyer and informed him that, this is the reason why Esperance are refusing to pay the money."

"But the lawyer told me that Esperance had no case against Kotoko after going through the legal documents we got from Esperance. According to the lawyer, Kotoko was held joint liable by FIFA because they did not do due diligence before signing Clottey, something which wouldn't have happened if they had done due diligence on the player," said Chibsah on the Kumasi based Nhyira FM.

BACKGROUND:

In 2016, FIFA ordered Asante Kotoko and Emmanuel Clottey to pay $153,000 to Tunisian side Esperance for illegally registering Emmanuel Clottey.

Clottey joined Kotoko in 2015 but had his contract terminated after the North African giants contested against his move. However, he never played a competitive match for Kotoko.

The striker cancelled his contract with Esperance prematurely to join Asante Kotoko but FIFA ruled that he was at fault and was handed a hefty US$ 180,000 fine.