Kumasi Asante Kotoko are mad at the decision by their trusted arrowhead Kofi Nti Boakye to sign a three-year contract with Al Ahli of Libya at their blind side, and have vowed to use all available avenues to retrieve their share of the reported $900,000 transfer proceeds. To show their battle readiness to launch a bid for their share in the deal, the head of the three-member Interim Management Committee of the club, Mr Samuel Opoku-Nti, told the Graphic Sports yesterday that, “We have quickly written to FIFA through the Ghana Football Association (GFA), and copied to Al-Ahli ready to demand our share of the amount as the law requires.” But veteran football administrator, Jonathan Abbey Pobee, has asked the Ghanaian champions to thread cautiously since they could undertake a fruitless adventure. He explained that by the laws of FIFA, the player had not committed any wrong and that Kotoko must have themselves to blame for missing out of such a lucrative deal. News last Wednesday that Nti-Boakye, 26, had signed a three-year contract as a free agent with the Tripoli-based Libya champions worth a whopping $900,000 swept through Kotoko like a thunderstorm as, according to the Fabulous club, the player was under contract with them. Mr Opoku-Nti stated that the player’s contract with Kotoko was due to expire tomorrow (August 10, 2013), and it was untenable for him to enter into another deal four clear days before the expiry of the Kotoko contract. According to him the said contract with the Libyan giants flies in the face of the laws governing transfer of players. And looking at the amount involved, there was no way Kotoko would allow the matter to die, especially at this time when the club was in need of money for player recruitment, Opoku Nti forcefully argued. Nti Boakye has been out of the country for some time now but news that he was undergoing trials with Al-Ahli was all over the Garden City. He reportedly signed the contract after passing a medical last week. Some have described the former Liberty Professionals hitman, who joined Kotoko two seasons ago, as being ungrateful since Kotoko gave him the platform to push his potentials. But, others blame the Kotoko management for sitting aloof and failing to negotiate for a contract extension with the player when they knew his contract was due to expire soonest. According to Opoku-Nti, when he took over the affairs of the club albeit in the interim, he went through the files of the club and realised Nti-Boakye’s contract was bound to expire shortly. “I made contacts with the player’s manager for possible negotiations for contract extension but I was told the player had travelled outside the country. “Anytime I pressed for the whereabouts of the striker, his manager would tell me he would surely return from where he was, only to learn that he had signed a contract in Libya”, Opoku-Nti said. The acting Kotoko boss said it was not their intention to scuttle the player’s move to Al Ahli but that did not mean they would let the money due them go unrecovered. In spite of Kotoko’s strong optimism of their due at all cost, Mr Pobee who is the founder of Neoplan Stars FC, quoted portions of the FIFA laws on player transfer to back his assertion that Kotoko could be in for a lost battle. He told the Graphic Sports that Article 18 of FIFA laws on player contract headed, “Special provision relating to contract within professionals and clubs”, appeared to have shot down Kotoko’s move for any money relating to Nti-Bokaye’s contract with Al Ahli. Section 3 of the said Article 18, says, “ A professional shall only be free to conclude a contract with another club if his contract with his present club has expired or would expire within six months.” Flowing from this, Mr Pobee stated that the player who had just three days left on his contract with Kotoko did not breach the law entering into another contract. “ I don’t know the details of the contract with Al Ahli but worse of it, the player could sign a provisional contract with another club and wait for the three days left on his contract with Kotoko to elapse before he starts playing for the new club,” Pobee added.