[ Ghana Football Association calls in police after undercover investigation by The Telegraph and Channel Four’s Dispatches programme finds that the President of Ghana’s FA agreed for the team to play in international matches that others were prepared to rig.]
Ghana has been exposed as
agreeing to take part in international football matches organised by match
fixers.
An undercover investigation by
The Telegraph and Channel 4’s Dispatches programme found that the President of
Ghana’s Football Association agreed for the team to play in international
matches that others were prepared to rig.
The Ghana Football Association
(GFA) has called for police to investigate two men over the allegations.
The team is currently competing
in the World Cup finals in Brazil, and on Saturday pulled off a 2-2 draw
against Germany, in what was seen as one of the most entertaining games of the
tournament so far.
However, it can now be revealed
that the African team had been lined up to play in international fixtures whose
results would be fixed by corrupted officials.
The Telegraph and Channel 4’s
Dispatches launched a six-month investigation into match-fixing after receiving
information that some football associations were working with criminal gangs
looking to rig scores in international games.
Reporters from The Telegraph and
a former Fifa investigator claimed they represented an investment company that
wanted to “sponsor” games. Christopher Forsythe, a registered Fifa agent, along
with Obed Nketiah, a senior figure in the Ghanaian FA, boasted that they could
employ corrupt officials who would rig matches played by Ghana.
The president of the country’s
football association then met the undercover reporter and investigator, along
with Mr Forsythe and Mr Nketiah, and agreed a contract which would see the team
play in the rigged matches, in return for payment.
The contract stated that it would
cost $170,000 (£100,000) for each match organised by the fixers involving the
Ghanaian team, and would allow a bogus investment firm to appoint match
officials, in breach of Fifa rules.
“You [the company] will always
have to come to us and say how you want it to go…the result,” said Mr Forsythe.
“That’s why we will get the officials that we have greased their palms, so they
will do it. If we bring in our own officials to do the match…You’re making your
money.”
“You have to give them [the
referees] something… they are going to do a lot of work for you, so you have to
give them something,” said Mr Nketiah, who is also the chief executive of the
Ghanaian football club Berekum Chelsea and sits on the management committee of
the Ghana U20 national team.
Mr Forsythe said that match
fixing was “everywhere” in football and that he could even arrange rigged
matches between Ghana and British teams. “The referees can change the matches
every time. Even in England it does happen,” he said. Following the meeting in
London, the representative of the investment firm asked if his company could be
sure their approach would work.
Mr Forsythe replied: “We will
always choose associations/countries that we think we can corrupt their
officials for all our matches.”
He listed a number of African and
European countries, adding “we can look for match officials who will sing to
our tune”.
Mr Forsythe and Mr Nketiah then
introduced the undercover reporters to Kwesi Nyantakyi, the president of the
Ghana FA, at a five-star hotel in Miami earlier this month shortly before his
team played South Korea in Miami before heading to Brazil.
During the meeting in Florida,
the president agreed to a contract that stated each match would cost the
investment company $170,000 and that they could appoint the match officials for
each game. A contract was drawn up that specified that “The Company will
appoint and pay for the cost of the referees/match officials in consultation
with an agreed Fifa Member association(s),” in direct breach of the rules that
prohibit third parties from appointing officials, in order to protect their
impartiality. During the meeting, the president suggested that the fictional
investment company put on two matches after the World Cup to prove that they
were able to organise games.
“So why don’t you arrange
matches?” said Mr Nyantakyi. “Let’s say there should be an experimental period
for us to see how we do your work? There is an opportunity in August, and then
in December, but I don’t know about that. But these months appear to be the
only time that we can have any opportunity to play friendly games.”
When a reporter asked if the
president was happy with the contract, as long as it reflected the experimental
period he had requested, he replied, “Yeah these are the issues that I’ve got
with it.”
“So we can work on that with a
trial game?” asked the investigator.
“Yeah,” replied the president.
Premier League stars were due to
play in matches which will not now take place.
Ghana’s football stars include
the ex-Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien and former Tottenham Hotspur player
Kevin-Prince Boateng, although there is no suggestion that either, or any other
player, is involved in match-fixing.
Last week saw the first
convictions in the modern era of criminals in this country for attempting to
rig football matches, following an earlier investigation by this newspaper.
Chann Sankaran and Krishna Sanjey
Ganeshan, businessmen from Singapore, and Michael Boateng, a former
professional footballer, were found guilty after a six-week trial.
Sankaran and Ganeshan were
sentenced to five years and Boateng 18 months. Sankaran and Ganeshan have links
to the notorious international match fixer Wilson Raj Perumal, and were said to
be attempting to establish a network of corrupt footballers in Britain.
Last month, The Telegraph
revealed police concerns over attempts to fix a game between Nigeria and
Scotland that was due to be played in London. Officers from the National Crime
Agency, Britain’s equivalent of the FBI which investigates organised crime, are
understood to have asked Fifa to issue an alert over attempts to rig the game.
Terry Steans, a former Fifa
investigator, said that the World Cup is “vulnerable” to match fixing.
“I know that the World Cup is
vulnerable to these criminal gangs because they have existing networks of
contacts at all levels inside the game and they will look for any vulnerability
they can find to exploit,” he said.
“Match-fixing is widespread. It
is happening at every level and in many countries. Match-fixing syndicates with
criminal intent have infiltrated all levels of football and sport from national,
regional and onto international. Fifa needs to do more.”
The revelations will heap further
pressure on Fifa, which is facing huge controversy over its management of
international football. Over the last month, Sepp Blatter, the president of
Fifa, has faced calls to stand down after it emerged the former Qatari
executive committee member had made millions of dollars in payments to Fifa
officials.
In March, The Telegraph revealed
that the same official had paid Jack Warner, one of the people that participated
in the decision to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup, $1.2 million shortly after
the vote.
When they were confronted about
their operation, both Mr Forsythe and Mr Nketiah denied any involvement in a
plot to fix matches. Mr Nketiah said: “These are false allegations and I will
never in my life do such a thing.”
As part of a statement, Mr
Forsythe, said: “To be frank everything I told you about the match fixing 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.”
Mr Nyantakyi said that he had not
read the contract and he did not know about the deal to fix games. He said that
the proposed match would have been handled by a licensed Fifa match agent and
that he was unaware that Mr Forsythe had demanded £30,000 for the football
association.
The Ghanaian FA announced last
night it has asked the Ghana Police Service to investigate Mr Forsythe and Mr
Nketiah for "misrepresenting the GFA with an attempt to defraud".
The football body has also
reported the matter to FIFA and CAF.
In a statement, it said: "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."
