An explosive documentary has rocked Ghana’s football association, showing executives including the organisation’s head allegedly proposing bribes worth millions of euros.
Ghana Football Association president Kwesi Nyantakyi was caught suggesting lucrative deals to undercover journalists posing as “investors” in the film “Number 12”, which was shown Wednesday at a preview attended by diplomats and politicians in the capital Accra.
Other Ghana FA executives were also filmed accepting bribes influencing player selection for various national teams, an AFP correspondent said.
And 15 referees were even caught on camera allegedly accepting just $100 (85 euros) to rig Ghana Premier League matches — with their assistants taking $50.
The project is the result of two years work by an undercover investigative journalist who goes by the pseudonym Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who is known for previously exposing graft in Ghana’s judiciary.
The documentary shows Nyantakyi proposing journalists posing as investors pay him $11 million to help grease the palms of key government officials to secure contracts.
During several meetings in Dubai, Nyantakyi also suggested setting up an agency that would broker a sponsorship deal for the Ghana Premier League.
The deal discussed on camera was to be worth $5 million per year for five years, and as part of the agreement the Ghana FA was to pay a fee of 20 to 25 percent to the agency set up by Nyantakyi.
Ghanaian police had already opened an investigation into the GFA head after President Nana Akufo-Addo complained that Nyantakyi had “used the president’s name and office fraudulently”.
Nyantakyi was then questioned by police and released pending further investigation.
Journalist Anas, who keeps his identity a closely guarded secret, earlier in the week vowed to carry on his undercover work despite receiving death threats over his latest expose.
“I am not scared and I will not be intimidated. I’m keeping my focus and will not be distracted,” Anas Aremeyaw Anas told AFP earlier in the week, stating that his work was “in the interest of the nation”.
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AFP
