Hearts demand $56,000 from sacked Nuttall
The Board of Directors of Accra hearts of Oak is demanding $56,000 refund from dismissed coach Frank Nuttall after he admitted receiving the said amount from transfer of some players.
The decision to dispense with the services of the Scotsman followed a damming report on his conduct by a three-member committee set up to investigate him for alleged unethical behaviour of transfer of some players without the knowledge of the Hearts administration.
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Portions of the committee's report, which were leaked to the Graphic Sports, indicate that coach Nuttall benefited separate payments of $50,000 and $6,000 respectively from the transfer of two unnamed players.
The committee in their report recommend the coach’s dismissal which was unanimously endorsed last Friday —exactly one year after his appointment — and the decision will be communicated to him officially today despite pleas by the coach to be allowed to stay on the job.
Nuttall, who was appointed on February 16 last year, asked his employers to temper justice with mercy explaining that his conduct amounted to an error of judgement.
"It's a difference of understanding pertaining to the job. It is an error of judgement on my part for not informing the board and the administration [for which] I apologise to the committee and I plead that it should not cost me my job,"the coach stated to the committee.
However, the plea of 48-year-old Nuttall was turned down by the three member committee comprising Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, Ivy Heward- Mills, a former High Court Judge; and Frank Nelson Nwokolo, which recommended his immediate dismissal.
The committee's findings linked the coach to a Scottish football agent, NM Football Consultancy, as the collaborators for the transfer of players of Hearts, a conduct described by the committee as a "pure conflict of interest which goes against the code of ethics of the club"
The committee concluded that the conduct of the Scottish trainer had cost the Phobians financially and"co nsequently must compensate the club all the nancial loss he admitted to have caused the club".
According to the report, the committee arrived at the decision to dismiss the coach in order to serve as a deterrent to employees of the club who may subsequently be involved in any such act.
This is not the first time the Scottishborn coach has been fired on the job in Africa.
Prior to his appointment by Hearts last year, Nuttall was given the sack by a Kenyan side Gor Mahia in 2016 after a salary disagreement with the club’s management.
He was axed also from his job as the assistant coach of Egyptian giant’s side, Zamalek, just a month of joining the Cairo-based club.