Executive council dismisses bribery allegations

The Executive Council of the Ghana Football Association has described the bribery allegations labelled against the delegation that took the Black Stars to Nigeria as unfounded and without merit saying the 25,000 dollars in question was personal gift from the River State Governor.

In a statement signed by Mr Y A Ibrahim, council chairman after an emergency meeting, said all gifts offered were done after the match without any prior arrangement or promise of favour and that the result of the said match was never predetermined.

It said there were no previous contact between officials of Ghana and Nigeria before the match aside of the pre-match conference.

The Council noted that prior to the match the Ghanaian delegation had complained at the pre-match conference to the match commissioner about the poor accommodation and reception generally accorded the delegation.

It further noted that whiles in Nigeria, one of the training sessions of the team was disrupted by unruly Nigerian crowd adding that the delegation took exception to the harassment and intimidation of the team and according lodged a formal compliant with the Director of Sports and the Assistant Secretary of Nigeria Football Association.
The Council said the winning bonus of world Cup matches was 2000 dollars per player and therefore do not think that the Ghanaian players would prefer 800 dollar to play a match of continence.
It said from the foregoing it is its view that the atmosphere prior to the match was not one of friendliness pointing out that gifts to national teams after matches is not uncommon.
The Council cited a recent match between Ghana's Black Queens and the Falcon of Nigeria in which Ghana lost 2-5 and the Queens were entertained at a reception at which they received gifts.
In light of the foregoing the council said it is of the view that there was no act of impropriety from any member of the delegation in accepting the gifts offered them.
It therefore assures FIFA, CAF and the general public that it would not hesitate to take punitive measures against any member of the leadership of national teams if it has sufficient reasons to believe that any official is culpable of impropriety.