Former Black Stars coach, James Kwasi Appiah has given the Ghana Football Association (GFA) seven days to settle his outstanding salaries and bonus totalling $185,000 or face legal action.
Ultimatum
A demand notice signed by his solicitor, Baffour G.B. Ashia of Sory@Law, dated May, 2020 and copied to the Minister of Youth and Sports, said “And should you fail to heed our client’s demand within seven days from the date of this letter, we have our client’s irrevocable instructions to initiate legal action against you in a court of competent jurisdiction not only for the amount together with the accrued interest stated in the preceding paragraph but also the cost incurred by our client in any intended legal action that would be the result of your failure, refusal and or neglect to heed our client’s demand as communicated.”
Unpaid salary and bonus
Coach Appiah’s $35,000 per month salary has been in arrears from August 2019 to December 2019 when his two-year contract ended, while his winning bonus of $10,000 for the Black Stars’ 1-0 away victory over Sao Tome and Principe in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier last November has also not been paid.
The letter explained that the former Stars coach was entitled to twice the winning bonus of $5,000 which was paid to the players for that match per his contract, while his five months outstanding salary amounted to $175,000.
“In the light of the foregoing, our client’s instructions to us are to demand from you and we hereby so demand that you effect payment to our client the sum of $185,000 being the total sum of the unpaid salary for the five-month period and the performance bonus as stipulated under the agreement together with the accrued interest,” it stressed.
Follow-up
According to Lawyer Baffour Ashia, last Tuesday’s final demand notice was a follow-up to an earlier letter sent to the GFA on March 11, 2020 in that regard but did not receive any response from the FA.
He said that was after the GFA had emailed Coach Kwasi Appiah on March 5, 2020 demanding from him to hand over every item belonging to the GFA in his custody.
“We wrote back to them on March 11, 2020, acknowledging receipt of their letter and did indeed handed over their items in our possession to the FA.
“We then demanded for our client’s unpaid unpaid salary and bonus. They received the letter but did nothing about it,” Lawyer Ashia revealed.
