The Professional Footballers Association of Ghana (PFAG) is to file a complaint with FIFA about mistreatment of a young footballer signed by a Albanian first division club on a year long contract, reports FIFPro. However, his club, FK Bylis, has filed a counter claim with FIFA, and has alleged that the player is not being truthful. 

Gideon Offei was signed by FK Bylis on a loan contract from KF Tirana in September 2018. FIFPro alleges that Offei has not been paid for three months, and has been kicked out of a hotel where the club had arranged accommodation for him. 

“I have had sleepless nights for one month”, Offei told FIFPro. “One day when it was raining, the coach said there was no training. But when I got home, the club called and the President fined me for missing training. The team bus did not come to pick me up for training so I had walk for one hour on my own. It’s inhumane to be left out in the cold like this. When I spoke to my mother on a video call she started crying. She asked me to beg them to buy me a plane ticket home.”

FK Bylis argues that the allegations are false. ‘Firstly, Offei has a contract until 31 May, and must respect it’, read the statement posted on Facebook (below). “He should have presented himself at training and for that, there will be sanctions […] As for the charge that the club made him walk to training, his charges are ridiculous. Perhaps Offei wants a plane or a private taxi, or we buy him an umbrella? The club didn’t lease him to drive him by car or by bus to training every day, or to buy him an umbrella so he doesn’t get wet in the rain. It is his duty to present himself for training on time, according to the staff programme.’

The club alleged that Offei’s behaviour had changed after it decided not to sign him on a permanent contract. ‘All the time he has been in Ballsh [the town where FK Bylis is based] he has been problematic’, continued the statement, adding that Offei had often made ‘incorrect’ statements; had not properly engaged in training; or had created ‘controversy’, which had damaged the club’s relationship with the player.

‘The player does not tell the truth, because the club has no financial obligation to him’, continued the statement, adding that it had full documentation relating to Offei’s contract. It added that its squad had 25 players with different nationalities, and all had received payment during the last month.

FIFPro states that the PFAG will ask FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber to rule that FK Bylis pay Offei overdue salary and compensation for his treatment. FK Bylis’s statement outlines that it has also made a formal complaint to FIFA, asking it to take respective measures.