Hello there. What's good wherever you are?
A couple of days ago, some of my media pals were in a frenzied state of accusatory agitation. The reason? The Ghana Football Association president (Kwasi Nyantakyi) had scored an own goal – as some put it – when he had urged referees to take bribes…
…he did ask them to take bribes and even recommended that referees who take bribes and report such cases be handsomely rewarded with amounts perhaps double the bribery sum.
If you ask me, this is a very touchy situation but I tend to agree with what he is saying because we live in a world where no matter what you would do, referees would always be approached to fix games. To defend himself from the outcry that has arisen, he’s said he was taken out of context.
The GFA president is quoted by the Graphic Sports paper as saying that he couldn’t possibly have condoned corruption at last Saturday’s event which was where he made those utterances. In his own defence he says:
“Unless my comments were taken out of context I don’t think my comments in any way sought to encourage corruption among football referees in Ghana.
I told them to collect the bribes and do the right thing. I had first made the point that corruption in any form cannot be tolerated and in football we need to weed out such practice.
If there are no bribe givers there would not be bribe takers. Accepting and delivering fairness would discourage the givers...”
He didn’t stop there in his address as the young lawyer also went on to say that a particular crop of referees who are noted to take bribes are known to the authorities.
“But because in any case of bribery both the giver and receiver are guilty, those who make such allegations in informal settings are reluctant to provide evidence to support such cases.”
Well, so that’s the whole wahala of the issue which I feel is a non-issue. I fully support his pronouncements. Meanwhile people have said that the Parliament must call him to order and question him publicly though Nyantakyi says he doesn’t know anything about that.
Me, I think his explanations in the papers are enough.
Enjoy the weekend, all!
