AN UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION by The Telegraph and Channel 4′s Dispatches programme has found the President of Ghana’s football association agreed for the national team to take part in games that would be fixed.
Over a period of six months, the investigation team delved into the murky world of match-manipulation and came into contact with Christopher Forsythe, a registered Fifa agent and Obed Nketiah, a senior figure within the Ghanaian FA and met to discuss the rigging of games. The investigation team posed as an investment company that wished to ‘sponsor’ football matches.
During the meeting, which is secretly filmed, Forsythe tells the undercover that match fixing ‘happens everywhere’ while he explains how to influence a referee.
Tell the officials, ‘Look, something is happening in the Far East on this match. So we want it 3-2 in favour of the opposition. And then they will make it happen. You’re making your money and then they will just think ‘the referee robbed us’ and it lasts for 24 hours. After people are eating and everything, boozing, they forget all about it. They look at the next match.”
Earlier this month, at a five-star hotel in Miami, shortly before Ghana played South Korea in a friendly, the undercover team met with Ghana FA President Kwesi Nyantakyi who agreed to a contract that would see the fictional investment company appoint and pay for match officials – a direct breach of Fifa rules.
In an official statement released on Sunday evening, the Ghana FA have asked local police to investigate Forsythe and Nketiah for ‘misrepresenting the GFA with an attempt to defraud’.
The association also confirmed that it has reported the matter to the CAF (Confederation of African Football) and FIFA.
