Serious Fraud Office raids GFA offices

Accra, Dec. 7, GNA - A high-powered team from the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) on Tuesday stormed the premises of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) for documentary evidence on sponsorship agreements of the Association.

The SFO had in their possession a search warrant that gives them the right to attain the documents at the offices of the country's soccer governing body.

The exercise which lasted for nearly two-hours halted operations at the offices as staff were barred from going in and out of the state-of-the-art headquarters of the Football Association.

The team numbering over a dozen, centred their search at the office of the GFA scribe, (Kofi Nsiah), the head of the Administration and went away with eight Central Processing Units (CPU) from the various offices and bundles of files.

The operation drew scores of people to the GFA premises with mainly the media personnel the dominant.

Randy Abbey, Spokesperson of the GFA told the media that the action of the SFO officials emanated from a search warrant issued through an ex-parte motion at the court.

"The SFO wrote to us and we responded. The case is pending in court but they said they have a search warrant to look through documents at the GFA. "It is basically about sponsorship agreements of the GFA."

Randy described the situation as "unpleasant", adding "some of the staff are traumatized because they have never had such experience." Attempts to seek reaction from officials of the SFO were unsuccessful as they remained mute to questions from media personnel.

The move comes barely a week after FIFA was said to have cautioned the GFA over a possible sanction due to recent acts pertaining to Governmental interference in the administration of the game

Few months ago, the SFO invited the GFA to respond to some reported irregularities in the brokerage of the sponsorship partnership with cellular outfit, Globacom on the Premier League and the exploits of the senior national team.