Moorosi Tsiane
GHANIAN defender Patrick Nyarko has threatened to drag Lioli to FIFA to force the club to compensate him for sacking him two months into his one-year contract.
Nyarko signed a one-year deal with Tse Nala in August after leaving Liphakoe. He was however, shocked when the management told him that his services were not required.
The hard-tackling defender told the Lesotho Times on Tuesday that he did not have a problem with leaving the club but wants to be compensated. Last week, Lioli announced that it had signed nine new players and Nyarko’s was conspicuously absent from the list.
“When the new committee was elected, they told me that there were some problems with my contract,” Nyarko said.
“They asked that we review certain clauses and I agreed to their demands to alter the contract. I was only surprised two weeks ago when I was told that the coach didn’t know me therefore, they were giving me my clearance.
“I told them that I didn’t have a problem with that but they should compensate me. My manager asked them for a meeting which until today (Tuesday) has not materialised. Every time I try to follow-up, they say they will get back to me which they never do.”
The player feels hard done and suspects that he is only being treated unfairly because he is an expatriate who survives only on football.
“I have never received a full salary since joining Lioli and I understood that all clubs were struggling because of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, I think they are now pushing it too far. Last month I got way less than what I was expecting and that is when things started changing because it looked as if they were out to torture me.
“It feels as if I am being held hostage because they are not finalising this in time for me to get a new club before the closing of the registration window. However, I am not taking the matter lightly. If they do not do right by me, then I am approaching FIFA for recourse.”
The player was signed by the interim committee before it was voted out late in August this year and he feels he is now being pushed out because of that.
“What they are doing to me is very painful, it feels like they are torturing me. I don’t have a problem with them releasing me but we have a contract which must be honoured. Even if they do not pay me in full for the remaining part of the contract, they must compensate me. However, they are not showing any interest,” Nyarko said.
Lioli president Lebohang Thotanyana said that the problem that they are facing with Nyarko is that although he was a free agent, he did not have a clearance.
“He failed to give us a clearance, so how are we going to register him? We couldn’t register him and we agreed to terminate his contract. The contract cannot be implemented without a clearance.
“As a free agent, he should have just given us his clearance but he has failed to do that and we cannot register him,” Thotanyanna said.
