TS Galaxy chairman Tim Sukazi has criticised Bernard Yao Kouassi, and confirms that the club will pay the R1.8 million owing, to have their FIFA transfer ban lifted. 

Speaking to the Siya crew, Sukazi gave details into what happened with the Ivorian striker from his point of view, believing that the player did not fulfill the conditions of the contract they had put in place. The player, however, took the matter to FIFA and despite the club's best efforts to fight the matter, Kouassi won and now has to be paid just under R2 million by the Rockets. The contract Kouassi signed with Galaxy was in January 2023, but Sukazi has told the Siya crew why the conditions were allegedly not fulfilled.

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"It's as simple as this. Obviously, it's going to be blown out of proportion," Sukazi said to the Siya crew. 

"He arrived and we looked at him and we thought he could help us. If I am not mistaken, that was January 2023. We then had to conclude a contract with him. That was subject to two conditions. Condition one was that he be issued with a work permit before the close of the window, 31 January, 2023. Condition number two was that he be issued with an International Clearance Certificate (ITC). These are suspensive conditions, in law, as you would know. Meaning if these conditions are not fulfilled, even one of them, then the contract falls away.

"We started running around and we spent about R40 000 to accelerate and secure his work permit. We did that. Condition one was fulfilled, but the work permit got to us around 25 or 26 January, so we were short of days as you can imagine. To get the ITC, you need to have lodged a signed contract and the work permit with the PSL and that will then take your documents to SAFA, for them to upload into the system for us to apply through the FIFA transfer matching system (TMS). The documents were at SAFA and as we started logging into the TMS, we could not find him at all. When we did not find him, we asked him for a clearance and he gave us a clearance from his club. We could not find this guy and days were moving.

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"On 31 January, just as the window was about to close as well as the conditions for the contract, the guy gave us another clearance. Indeed, we never found him again (on the system). The window closed and the contract fell away. We were also becoming uneasy and we said the contract fell away. We lost all the money in trying to secure his work permit. We started telling him that the contract has fallen away and he came back with a different passport number on the system. We tried the passport and then his information was there. But that was in February and it did not change anything. The transfer deadline had past and the date of the fulfillment of conditions was gone. "

Kouassi took the matter to FIFA and despite Galaxy's attempts to appeal the decision made by the football governing body, they were unsuccessful in having the ban lifted. Sukazi expressed his disappointment in how the matter was handled by FIFA.

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"He went home and the first thing he did was to lodge a claim with FIFA. Having seen how this matter has been looked at by FIFA, personally I am very disappointed. I don't think they read our submissions or they took any consideration into what we submitted," alleges Sukazi.

"What I've explained is what went into our submission. They said we must pay the guy the amount and we appealed at CAS. The panel interrogated us on the work permit and we explained ourselves and that we spent money. I mean we cannot control him giving us the wrong clearances and wrong passport numbers and all of that, when the date of the 31st went by. They said we did not do enough and they said we should pay the guy the money. That's it."

Sukazi, meanwhile, has confirmed that the club will still pay the owings in full.

"It's so disappointing. We have to pay the money because we've signed players (for next season). We are registering players. It's so disappointing. The guy will get R1.8 million for doing nothing."

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