[ 2014-06-23 ]

Ghana FA chief Nyantakyi to take legal action against Daily Telegraph over match fixing report
Ghana FA president Kwesi Nyantakyi will take legal
action in the United Kingdom against the newspaper
'The Daily Telegraph', for claiming that he has
signed to contract with a betting syndicate to fix
results of Black Stars matches.

Nyantakyi rubbished the undercover report by The
Telegraph, and Channel 4's Dispatches programme
which sought to link him with match fixing saying
it is a calculated attempt to cast a slur not only
on his image but that of the GFA and the world
governing body of football, FIFA.

The GFA boss revealed that the federation's
seven-page response to the newspaper's allegations
was not reflected in their report on their
internet publication with 'The Telegraph' writing
just one line of reaction from the GFA when it
initially published the story.

Nyantakyi says the report is calculated to tarnish
his image, using the Black Stars excellent showing
at the World Cup to exact maximum traction for the
supposed match fixing.

'This is a matter that has been well calculated to
tarnish my image as well as that of the football
association and even FIFA because they are
releasing a report of untruth at a very critical
time of the world cup to divert attention and also
cast a slur on the image of the entire
competition,' Nyantakyi said in an interview.

'We sent a seven-page response to their
allegations last week but they chose only to
publish just one line in their entire lengthy
report they wrote in their newspaper. This clearly
shows that they are up to mischief.

'All the international news agencies like the AFP,
BBC and AP extensively reflected our points of
view which brought balance to their reports but
with the intention to deceive the public and stand
up a spurious claim against me and the GFA, they
(Telegraph) opted not to reflect our version of
events.'

The GFA boss revealed that two men approached him
last month over their interest in buying the right
to organise friendly matches for the Black Stars
and were asked to present their proposal for
consideration. They did not tell Nyantakyi of any
intention to fix matches.

Even before the GFA could respond to the proposal
sent by the two men or even sign the contract the
Daily Telegraph claims Nyantakyi and the GFA were
ready to fix matches.

Mr Nyatankyi, who is a lawyer, said the GFA will
file a legal suit against the newspaper 'to come
and establish an agreement if an agreement can be
reached with a corporate body like the GFA by a
draft contract.'

'The newspaper should brace themselves up and get
ready,' he warned.

The tabloid claimed that Obed Nketiah, a Ghanaian
football administrator, and a FIFA agent
Christopher Forsythe approached Nyantakyi in
agreeing to fix Black Stars international
matches.

However, in an interview on Monday, June 23, the
GFA boss said he got to know the FIFA player agent
through Mr Nketia in Ghana over a proposal to buy
rights to Black Stars friendly matches for the
next one year.

He insisted that they never proposed to fix
matches for the Black Stars as they only sought to
buy the rights to organise friendly matches for
the team.

The two men, who are not licensed by FIFA to
organise friendly matches, were probed by
Nyantakyi whether they are experienced in
organising matches and they replied that they have
no experience but would engage a FIFA match agent
to work on it.

Unknown to Nyantakyi, the two men had been
secretly filmed boasting that they can fix the
results of matches involving the Black Stars if
they were handed the right to organise the
matches.

He revealed that the two men and the undercover
reporters piled pressure on him to sign the
contract but he refused insisting that he wanted
the Legal Committee advice and approval of the
Executive Committee before he could commit to such
a deal.

Realising that Nyantakyi is unlikely to sign the
deal with travelled to Miami where the Black Stars
were camping without prior appointment desperately
seeking to commit the GFA boss who stood his
ground only saying that a trial of the deal could
be made only after approval from the Legal
Committee and Executive Committee.

He assured Ghanaians to keep calm as, according to
him, the report is a figment of the reporters'
imagination.

'There's really no cause of alarm as far as I am
concerned because nothing untoward has happened
involving me or the federation and all the noise
being made is of no consequence.'

Meanwhile, the Telegraph's has been forced to
amend it reports on the internet in the wake
reports of the report and reaction from the GFA
which has been widely covered globally. It h

It has also emerged that in their internet
edition, which is available globally, they did not
report that Nyantakyi signed the deal to fix
matches.

But in the print edition in the UK they made it
their headline story with sub-headline: 'Ghana
chiefs sign contract with 'betting syndicate' to
rig results of international matches'. This shows
that they are aware the GFA might not get the
print edition since it is only circulated in the
UK.

Despite the seven-page response to the Telegraph,
they only wrote this: 'Mr Nyantakyi said that he
had not read the contract and he did not know
about the deal to fix games. He said that the
proposed match would have been handled by a
licensed Fifa match agent and that he was unaware
that Mr Forsythe had demanded £30,000 for the
football association.'

The Daily Telegraph front page puts a sobering
dampener on all the unbridled joy surrounding the
Black Stars performance at the World Cup.

Source - ghanasoccernet.com

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