Chief coach of the home-based Super Eagles of Nigeria, Salisu Yusuf has been caught on camera receiving the sum of ₦360, 000 from fake football agents to select two players for the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN) which was held in Morocco.

Yusuf who is also an assistant to the Eagles Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr was in charge of the Super Eagles Team B to the 2017 West African Football Union (WAFU) tournament and the 2018 CHAN where they lost in the finals.

In an investigation led by Ghanaian journalist Anas Aemeyaw, reporters posing as football agents for some players approached Yusuf in September 2017 for a conversation about players’ selection.

A clip made public by the ‘BBC African Eye’, showed that during the conversation, they handed Yusuf ₦360, 000 ($1000) and agreed to offer him more cash incentives if he selected their players for the competition which held in Morocco.

The meeting happened in Ghana during the 2017 WAFU Cup where Nigeria finished second after losing the final 4-1 to host Ghana.

“So if anything goes through and these players are able to get their contracts, you will get 15% of that contract,” one of the reporters posing as an agent told Yusuf to which he replied “They will be in CHAN. You know in football it is supposed to be consistency and form”.The two players in question were eventually selected for the competition although the investigation stated that there is no suggestion that the money given to Yusuf influenced the selection.

Although he had denied any wrongdoing, telling reporters that his team selection was based solely on performances, Yusuf might be facing the wrath of FIFA, Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

The 59-year-old also claimed that he never asked the reporters for money and that it was just offered to him, clarifying that he received $750 not the $1000 as claimed in the report.

He said he viewed the money as a trivial and symbolic value which falls within the gifts FIFA code allows for and that his influence over the players’ selection was never affected.

Under the FIFA code of ethics, officials should not engage in any activity that gives rise to suspicion or collect any cash gifts.