Sports Features of Sunday, 7 August 2005

Source: Yaro Aziz

Bribery in Ghana Soccer

What makes football the most exciting game and with the largest following is its unpredictability.thus when bribery and corruption comes into play its makes nonsense of its unpredictable nature and you wonder whether its worth following, thus in refrence to our on going league which has been exciting so far where the so call small clubs are giving the big clubs a good run for their money.

It is my fervent hope that it continues like this so as to have a worthy winner devoid of any suspicision.it is in this quest that i would emplore the GFA and all other stake holders involved in &n! bsp;the running of our game to be very vigilant to ensure a bribery free league .because normally around this time clubs in desperate positions either in trying to win the league or avoiding relegation try to engage in all measures .

It saddens my heart when i hear fans of opposing teams accuse each other of buying their way through matches thus questioning the credibility of our league.it is in this light that i hope the disciliplinary commitee of the gfa are taking a cue to what - happened to marseille and more recently venezia and genoa in italy and deal ruhtlessly with any club concerned and also investigate to the latter any suspicion since apart from making nonsense of the credibility of our league also makes it difficult to attract sponsorship which already its not forth coming we cant talk about this without mentioning refrees since they also have a big role to play since some club managers engage them in influencing matches ther fore the knights of the whistle should be encouraged to report any club manager who approach them in that regards and if any club boss , refree or player is found guilty after thorough investigation apart from lengttly bans there must also be suspended jail sentence by the judiciary to serve as a detterent to other. to also curb some of these things i think the ghalca and the gfa should institute cash prizes for the first four clubs in the league so as more clubs would have a lot to play for .

Since one of its main causes of bribery in our league is the fact that apart from winnig the league or placing second to qualify for africa or avoiding relegation there is not much to play for .

The ghalca top four is at least a step in the right direction .

i want to see a situation where a club who has nothing to play for in the league can send a club deep into relegation or prove to be an obstacle to a club winning the league then i would be satisfied that our league has come of age

yaro aziz of melton keynes uk



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