Dr Kofi Amoah wanted to reduce my salary, says ex-Black Stars coach Kwesi Appiah
Former Black Stars coach, Kwasi Appiah, has revealed that the president of the now-defunct Normalisation Committee, Dr Kofi Amoah wanted to reduce his salary.
Appiah returned to the Black Stars as the head coach for the second time between 2017 to 2019.
However, multiple reports emerged that there was a rift between Appiah and Dr Amoah after he declined to invite Sulley Muntari and Kevin Prince Boateng to the Black Stars.
Speaking in an interview, Appiah, who led Ghana to the 2014 Mundial revealed that Dr Amoah earlier threatened to sack him for not following his orders.
“He threatened to sack me but I told him I am not afraid of being sacked. Those threats, I have heard them several times but I’m not the type that those threats get to me,” Appiah told Joy News.
Appiah’s contract was expected to end in April 2019, but due to the AFCON which was moved to June-July, it was extended to have him lead the team to the competition, but before that Dr Amoah wanted to cut his salary.
“He had a conversation with me about my contract and he was thinking of reducing my salary, but I told him look, you can’t reduce my salary, then he should take the job.
“He thought I didn’t deserve the [$35,000] salary I was on and when you do that, you are disrespecting whoever you are dealing with.
“His posture even showed that he had no respect,” he noted.
He questioned if Dr Amoah would have had the temerity to try to reduce the salary.
“If it was white guy in charge of the team, or the one who was there before [Avram Grant], we were paying more than $50,000, would he have done that?
“Is it because I am a Ghanaian, I don’t deserve to be paid well? I even said if you are reducing my salary to give it to my assistants, I will be fine with it, but not to just reduce it, that I won’t accept.
“He should take the job,” he said.
Kwasi Appiah led the Black Stars to exit the tournament at the round of 16 stage after losing to Tunisia via a penalty shootout.