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General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Prosper Harrison Addo, has asked persons involved in alleged match-fixing in the country to stop justifying themselves with explanations.
According to the legal practitioner, the FA would not sit down unconcerned to allow some faceless persons to put the Ghanaian football into disrepute with matches of convenience.
By doing so, he said, actions of arrest and prosecution among other things would be implemented on offenders if necessary to bring sanity into the game, to complement FIFA’s motto which states “My Game Is Fair Play.”
Prosper Harrison-Addo in a one-on-one interview with Saddick Adams also known as ‘Sports Obama’ on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, on Angel FM’s Floodlight Sports, affirmed his outfit’s readiness to bring perpetrators to justice to protect the passion of the nation.
“If we lose the integrity of the game, we don’t have a game,” said the General Secretary.
Therefore, “whoever is involved in illegal betting and match manipulation and believes that only football people can punish him because Ghana does not have any law then the person doesn’t know and understand the country’s laws.
“So to those doing explanation upon explanation, it is not a matter of explanation, you can’t leave in a country and you manipulate matches and think there’s no law” Prosper Harrison Addo said sternly.
He continued by reiterating that, the GFA will not ‘temper justice with mercy on anyone who would come out and claim to be “ignorant of the law” because there have been numerous integrity training regimes organized for clubs even before, during, and after seasons.
Similarly, President of the GFA, Mr. Kurt Okraku, in August 2021, after the infamous Obuasi AshantiGold and Inter Allies 7-0 score-line which sparked controversy, described those tarnishing the image of Ghana football by fixing matches as “faceless cowards” and vowed to bring them to justice to protect the passion of the nation.
“Our football has been attacked by faceless cowards. It is my responsibility and that of the Executive Council to defend the passion of the nation. Everybody who has played a part [in match-fixing relating to betting] will face it” he indicated.
He continued, “We will clean our sport and bring confidence to a sport that feeds me and all of us, a sport that gives hope and inspiration to the entire 30 million people of this country. If you are here and you know that you played a part, just be ready.”
The GFA president furiously warned persons allegedly involved in the football malpractice to desist from calling him since he is not going to entertain them.
“Don’t call me, because you didn’t call me when you wanted to play that role. And those who are calling must stop. Those who are calling my phone regarding betting must stop”
“To quote a former President of America, ‘we will chase them out of their hiding places and bring them to justice,” he stated.
