Ghana Football Association (GFA) President Kwesi Nyantakyi has accused the United States government of clandestine moves to destroy the image of FIFA.
The GFA boss told Metro TV’s ‘Good Evening Ghana’ Tuesday that the arrest of some FIFA officials in Zurich, for instance, was an attempt to paint the institution as a corrupt one.
“Why would they (U.S. security officials) arrest these people most of whom travelled to Switzerland through the United States? It was intended to create a certain effect. They [United States] wanted to highlight FIFA as a corrupt institution [and] FIFA officials, including all of us, as corrupt people and get world attention…which they succeeded”, Mr Nyantakyi said.
According to him, the timing of the arrests of the FIFA officials in Switzerland was timed to the eve of the FIFA congress that elected Sepp Blatter for a fifth term as President of the football governing body.
“The U.S. security agencies including the justice department and the American security system had all these information [on bribery and corruption] several months before the FIFA congress and they could have picked them in America because they travelled through the United States, and they alone know why they didn’t arrest them”, he said.
Nyantakyi was sharing his thoughts on Sepp Blatter’s resignation with the Good Evening Ghana host Paul Adom Otchere.
Nyantakyi said Blatter’s sudden decision to leave office came as a shock to him.
“His decision really came as a big surprise to me, am yet to contact any of the executive members. But I was really surprised when I heard the news,” Nyantakyi said.
“Just days after his election he decides to quit and am still wondering what would have caused him to take such decision.”
GFA Spokesperson, Ibrahim Saani Daara, however believes Ghana and Africa football will most likely suffer with Blatter’s exit.
“If Platinni is to be the next president of FIFA I will say Africa will suffer. All his rules in EUFA has been against Africa”, he said.
Blatter is resigning just four days into his new tenure. He made the declaration at a surprise press conference on Tuesday.
“I have been reflecting deeply about my presidency and about the forty years in which my life has been inextricably bound to FIFA and the great sport of football. I cherish FIFA more than anything and I want to do only what is best for FIFA and for football.
“FIFA needs profound restructuring,” he said in a statement.
Sepp Blatter’s administration has been faced with several allegations of corruption in recent years.
The world governing body FIFA was rocked by charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering as part of investigations by US federal prosecutors that also indicted 14 people.
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