Match Fixing: Nyantakyi Clears The Air

The President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kwesi Nyantakyi, is feeling overwhelmed by the allegation stories that he had signed onto a contract with match-fixing agents to throw friendly games involving the Black Stars.

He has denied his involvement in any such deal and has hinted of his intention to take legal action gainst UK newapaper, The Telegraph, which has implicated the FA boss in alleged match-fixing scandal which had made the headlines globally.

Since Sunday, stories about the alleged planned international match-fixing by the Ghana FA has filled the World Cup media in Brazil, but the apparently upset Nyantakyi is determined to assert his innocence.

“It is palpably false, absolutely untrue. The FA has issued a statement on the matter,” he told the Daily Graphic yesterday from his Maceio base in Brazil.

The allegations claimed that the GFA president had agreed the Black Stars played in two proposed friendly matches after the World Cup as a precursor to the signing of the alleged contract deal involving $170.000.

But Nyantakyi vehemently denied the allegation, saying, ” l have not agreed to any proposed match-fixing deal” and repeated his intention to sue The Daily Telegraph newspaper and the British broadcaster, Channel 4, who reportedly exposed the scandal after their alleged joint investigations.

The Telegraph allegedly claimed that Nyantakyi had agreed for the national team to play in matches which others were preparing to fix. But earlier yesterday, the GFA boss told BBC World Service, “the contents of the publication are not totally true” and that he had sent a seven-page response to both The Telegraph and Channel 4.

Nyantakyi did not stop there, because apart from reporting the matter to FIFA and CAF, he called on the Ghana Police Service “to investigate two persons for misrepresenting the GFA with an attempt to defraud.” The two persons were identified by The Telegraph as a FIFA-licensed agent and the other a Ghanaian club official, both of whom allegedly claimed to have met Nyantakyi earlier this month in a hotel in Miami, where the scandalous deal was struck.

The two were also filmed in which they claimed they would bribe GFA officials to ensure the contract was signed.

Even though Nyantakyi admitted, “I was given a draft contract which l indicated to their agent that l hadn’t read and I also had some issues with it”, he was unequivocal in stressing that “the GFA did not sign the contract and that the two gentlemen did not make such corrupt offers to the GFA or its officials for anybody to say the GFA is at fault”.

Meanwhile, the two alleged persons have reportedly denied conspiring to fix matches. “These are false allegations and l will never in my life do such a thing”, the Ghanaian club official allegedly involved in the scandal was reported to have sworn.

The Ghana FA president is currently with the Black Stars in Maceio, where the team is based for their Brazil World Cup group matches. The Stars, who are on the brink of elimination from the tournament, will meet Portugal in a crucial last group match in Brasilia on Thursday.