Former Black Stars player, Emmanuel Osei Kuffour has said former Black Stars head coach, Malik Jabir intended to defame Samuel Osei Kuffour by claiming he fired the ex-Bayern Munich player from the Black Stars camp for visiting a nightclub.
Osei Kuffuor asserted that Malik Jabir lacked the authority to dismiss a player from camp during the 2002 African Cup of Nations in Mali because he did not hold any recognized position in the team.
The Hearts of Oak legend who was a key member of the Black Stars squad narrated how the nightclub story came about.
“Sammy Kuffour was not sacked. After games at a tournament, the players of every country have fun. Everybody goes out to have a stroll and have a feel of the city. You can’t visit a country(for a tournament) and stay in camp only, by all means, someone will go out and have a walk. I might see something and be like ‘Chale, I’ve discovered a restaurant here so if I don’t feel the food they give us here I’ll go there,’ so it was something like that. ‘Oh Chale, I’ve seen a spot where we can go there and have fun after the match. And it was like a bar, we all went there with the South African guys after we played against them. We were all there,” he told Dan Kwaku Yeboah TV.
Following his narration of what transpired, he claimed that Malik Jabir peddled falsehood about the players visiting the nightclub and Kuffour returning at dawn.
“So when I heard that we went to a disco(Night Club) and (I heard) Malik Jabir saying he was waiting for the players to return and that Sammy Kuffour came in the morning. He is a lair. Malik Jabir is lying. Do you want to dent the person’s reputation or what? He has a family. You have to respect yourself so that someone will respect you. You need to respect the player don’t think that you are older than him, and so what?… Malik Jabir was not the coach or the team manager. He was just added to the entourage. So for him to say he sacked Osei Kuffuor, he doesn’t have that power, I want him to understand that.
According to the ex-Kotoko player, Sammy Kuffour willingly left the camp after the accusation that he had visited the nightclub.
“It was Sammy Kuffour who said ‘if you guys think I’m the bad one among the players, I don’t want any problem, take your money for me to leave.”
In 2020, Malik Jabir said he threw out Samuel Osei Kuffour during the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations while urging Ghanaian coaches to own their actions whenever they make decisions at the Black Stars.
“Yes, I sacked him from camp, it’s about time our Ghanaians coaches take responsibility for their actions,” Jabir told Kumasi-based Angel FM.
“We played drawn against Sudan in our first match. We the technical team were there around 11:00 pm when the South African coach came and asked us whether we came for a funfair or what. He said we should go to the disco but our players were there. I asked Oti Akenteng and Osam Duodu to go and verify while I stay behind, when the players saw them they took to their heels but Kuffuor never did. When he was questioned he said even in Germany they go to the nightclub.”
“The coaches returned but not with Kuffour. He came around 4:30 am and he was immediately sacked from camp.”
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Ghana was eliminated in the round of 16 after falling to Nigeria 1-0. They advanced to the knockout stage after finishing second in their group, which included South Africa, Morocco, and Burkina Faso.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
