Reactions, some spontanious, others well-thought out are pouring in thick and fast after the free public viewing of ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas’, lastest expose: ‘Number 12’, which has brought to fore the corruption going on at the nation’s games authourity, Ghana Football Association (GFA).
The first group organisation to react early yesterday was GFA which took umberage that it “was not provided with an opportunity to watch the premiering of the documentary as it was neither provided with an advanced copy of the said documentary nor furnished with tickets by Tiger Eye PI to watch the airing.”
Read the GFA: The Ghana Football Association (GFA)’s attention has been drawn to the airing of a documentary by Tiger Eye PI alleging acts of corruption by some match officials and senior officials of the federation.
The GFA was not provided with an opportunity to watch the premiering of the documentary as it was neither provided with an advanced copy of the said documentary nor furnished with tickets by Tiger Eye PI to watch the airing.
Though the GFA did not commission Tiger Eye PI to undertake this exercise and have not been provided with the opportunity of watching the documentary, we view the allegations circulating in the media very seriously and would wish to take immediate steps to address them.
To this end we believe it’s only fair and proper that Tiger Eye furnishes us with the said documentary and hereby request Tiger Eye as a matter of urgency to furnish us with all the recorded material on this documentary to enable us forward it to the appropriate quarters for further investigations.
The GFA wishes to emphasise that it is an association incorporated under the laws of Ghana and as such governed by the laws of Ghana as well as its own Rules and Regulations. It is also affiliated to CAF and FIFA
The GFA wishes to place on record that, there will be no attempt of a cover-up or shield any of our members caught in alleged acts of corruption.
The GFA wishes to assure all that as an institution it does not condone any manner of corrupt practices.
We wish to put on record that eight months ago, we got evidence of some external influences seeking to manipulate matches in our various competitions.
As soon as it became clear to us that we were facing the possibility of some external influences seeking to destroy the sanctity of the game in Ghana, we wrote to FIFA seeking assistance to help combat this menace.
The action we took was in furtherance of the GFA’s desire to fight against match manipulation and maintain the integrity of our game and federation.
We received a full FIFA response few days later, with an action plan on how we can fight the menace of match manipulation through a roadmap for the implementation of the national integrity initiative.
We are still working with FIFA Integrity Department to find the appropriate dates for the action to help educate our members on the dangers of this menace.
The GFA will subsequently be undertaking a holistic review and continue with our reforms geared towards the enhancement of its operations in dealing with alleged acts of corruption in the game.
We urge the football fraternity to remain calm and provide us with all the support we need as we bid to restore confidence and trust in our beautiful game.
We ask anyone with information about these allegations to get in touch with us through: info@ghanafa.org
The GFA’s statement was followed by that from Accra Hearts of Oak, one of the teams whose players were beneficiaries of the bribery.
Below is the full unedited statement from Accra Hearts of Oak.
