Ghana FA calls police over match-fixing reports

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Ghana FA calls police over match-fixing reports

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) said on Sunday it had asked police to investigate reports in a British newspaper that the national team was set to play in a friendly organised by match fixers.

The Daily Telegraph report claimed that GFA president Kwesi Nyantakyi had agreed a $170,000 (125,000 euros) contract for the national team to play in a match in which the officials had been selected by a bogus investment firm, against FIFA rules.

Nyantakyi maintains he never read the contract.

The GFA issued a statement stating that no contract had been signed and that it had asked police to investigate "two persons for misrepresenting the GFA with an attempt to defraud."

It named the two men as Christopher Forsythe, a registered FIFA agent, and Obed Nketiah, a senior figure in the GFA.

Nketiah and Forsythe had previously met with undercover reporters from the Daily Telegraph and Channel 4's Dispatches programme, believing them to be from an investment firm keen on "sponsoring" a friendly match, the paper reported.

The two men, along with the reporters, then met with Nyantakyi at a Miami hotel earlier this month to discuss the contract, according to the report.

"We wish to state that the GFA did not sign the contract as we waited for the response from the Legal Committee," said the GFA statement.

"The GFA has also reported the matter to FIFA and CAF," it added.

"We wish to assure the public that we will not tolerate such misrepresentations and we will seek strong sanctions against such individuals if such claims are found to be true."

Forsythe and Nketiah both deny plotting to fix matches.

"These are false allegations and I will never in my life do such a thing," said Nketiah.

Forsythe said his claims to be able to arrange rigged matches was "a figment of my own imagination because I am so naive that I don't even know how matches are done."

"They were promises just to be able to get something off you," he added.

The national team are currently playing in the World Cup in Brazil, and won plaudits for their performance in a pulsating 2-2 draw with Germany on Saturday.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2014-06-23