Ghana’s Football Association (GFA) denied British media reports on Monday that it had agreed to rig international matches and asked Ghanaian police to investigate two GFA officials the reports linked to the deal.
The Daily Telegraph and Channel 4 television’s Dispatches programme in London said they uncovered the case during a six-month investigation into match-fixing.
GFA president Kwesi Nyantakyi said the reports were “a representation of half-truths and half-lies”.
“It’s not true that we have agreed with match fixers or people who intend to organize matches of convenience between the Black Stars and any opponent in the future,” he said from Maceio in Brazil where Ghana are based for the World Cup finals.
A reporter for the newspaper and a former investigator for world soccer’s governing body FIFA claimed to represent a company that would buy the rights to friendly matches.
The two officials said they could help recruit referees who would rig the matches and the Daily Telegraph said a contract they submitted to the GFA spelled out conditions of the deal, including who would appoint the referees.
The Telegraph carried a video on its website showing what it said was a meeting between the two GFA officials and the former FIFA investigator where the match-fixing was discussed.
“The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has requested the Ghana Police Service to investigate two persons for misrepresenting the GFA with an attempt to defraud,” the association said in a statement on its website.
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