Malik Jabir: I won’t let that money go
Former Black Meteors coach, Malik Jabir, is peeved about the failure of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to settle salary and bonus arrears owed him during his tenure as the national team coach.
The veteran trainer was, particularly, unhappy with the GFA’s posture towards his quest for the football authorities to pay him his due after working for the state between 2014 and 2016, before he was sacked for not qualifying the Black Meteors to the Rio 2016 Olympics.
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In an interview with Graphic Sports, Coach Jabir said the local football governing body knew what to do as it had all the information pertaining to its indebtness to him but did nothing about it.
“I cannot be the one to chase them, they must do the needful to get me paid. It has been years since my job ended with the Meteors,” he lamented.
According to the former international, he spoke with the Minister of Youth and Sports, Isaac Asiamah, on the issue on phone but the minister told him the issue had not reached his desk.
“The Sports Minister asked me to send a reminder which I did and for a month now I have not had any feedback,” he revealed.
The GFA is expected to pay its former employee $99,000 in salary arrears for his role as the head coach of the national Under-23 team. He spent 36 months as the head coach of the team and he was just paid three months salary.
Coach Jabir was supposed to be paid $3,000 per month but the failure of the GFA to pay his salaries regularly has led to an accumulation over the period as he pushes for the money to be paid.
“Why should sports administrators have their way. I go mad when discussing the issue with people; it is unfair to be treated this way.”
“We are not asking any money from anyone’s pocket; it is our due, give it to us . We could have died while moving about for the national course but now we are fighting for our share,” he noted.
He cautioned the GFA never to make its mind of not paying the money since he would demand for what belonged to him till he was paid for his works.
Coach Jabir maintained that the GFA had disrespected them and had also been biased towards those national team coaches who were still being owed.
“No official is more important than any coach; they get their allowances, why not us,” he blurted out in pain.