Ghana football will lose credibility if FA doesn’t tackle corruption allegations – GACC

Ghana’s football administration has recently suffered some reputation damages following allegations that some of its officials were allegedly involved in corrupt practices.

Some of these allegations include vote-buying, match-fixing, and referees being bribed among others.

In order to uplift the image of the game, FIFA, which is itself currently battling with corruption allegations, is planning to set up an anti-corruption committee to police the world football governing body following the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process which was described by the British Prime Minister David Cameron as a “farce” when he was asked about the tide of corruption allegations currently assailing the organisation during parliamentary questions, according to the Telegraph of the UK.

According to Mr. Blatter, he wants to have “a new age of transparency” at FIFA.

The body has even gone ahead to sign a €20 million grant with the International Police Organisation (INTERPOL) to create a FIFA Anti-Corruption Training Wing within the INTERPOL Global Complex (IGC) in Singapore to chase out all corrupt persons in the organisation.

In Ghana, the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has called upon the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to tackle allegations of corruption against it, because these can damage its reputation.

The GACC is made up of the following institutions – the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) among others.

“I think football is at the heart of every Ghanaian and if is tainted with corruption, people will lose confidence in it”, Executive Secretary of the GACC, Mrs. Florence F. Dennis told ghanabusinessnews.com in an exclusive interview after the Coalition launched a study on media coverage of corruption, transparency and accountability in Accra on July 14, 2011.

According to Mrs Dennis, the GFA should be transparent in its dealings and “try to prevent corruption.”

“I think it is an issue that should be at the heart of the organization. That should be a crucial matter otherwise a game we all love and cherish will lose its credibility and will not have faith in it” she told ghanabusinessnews.com.

The anti-corruption campaigner says the FA needs to “have some ethical codes so that people who are found in corruption will be dealt with or punished to deter others who are involved in the activities of football and sports in general from corrupt acts.”

The FA President, Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi has said he has plans of setting up an Ethics Committee that will be tackling the corruption issue. He however, acknowledged that, the task will be a big challenge.

But Sports Journalist at ETV Ghana, Erasmus Kwaw in an article published on ghanabusinessnews.com asked whether Kwesi Nyantakyi’s plan to set up an Ethics Committee could be another “red herring” in the making.

According to Mr Kwaw, “This might seem a good response to the numerous and almost endless streams of allegations bordering on corrupt practices by officialdom. Perhaps it’s also an acknowledgement by the FA that its existing disciplinary committees do not have the power and scope to investigate issues bordering on corruption.”

He said despite his seeming enthusiasm, Nyantakyi failed crucially to explain the composition of the new anti-corruption committee – meaning which persons will oversee the duties of the committee and what their mandate will be.

“But owing to the long held perception of corruption at the FA which stretches way back to the eighties and nineties, it might not be wise to have some particular individuals on the committee due to their past records. It will be akin to the proverbial fox guarding the hen house.”

But the GACC said it will be willing to help the GFA prevent corruption in football.

“Let me say that the GACC is ready to partner or collaborated with any institution…we are prepared to work with them to prevent corruption and also our members like CHRAJ are there to investigate issues of corruption”, Mrs Dennis said.

By Ekow Quandzie