Dylan Bettencourt
Ghanaian football teams Ashanti Gold and Inter Allies have been dropped two divisions, while officials and players were handed lengthy bans for match-fixing.
The match-fixing took place last September when Ashanti Gold were 7-0 winners, with an opposition player scoring two own goals in an attempt to prevent the 5-1 prearranged score line.
The incident was investigated by the Ghana Football Association (GFA), which found both teams guilty of match manipulation.
Inter Allies volunteer Emmanuel Amoah was given a life-ban for his role in the scandal.
Ashanti Gold president Dr Kwaku Frimpong was handed a 10-year ban and fined R210,000. His son got an eight-year ban and a R100,000 fine.
The player who scored the own goals was initially banned for two years but that was reduced to six months for his role in “unravelling” the match-fixing.
Both coaches and team managers from each side were handed a two-year ban.
A total of 25 players received bans between two and four years.
Nana Kwasi Darling, who was the sporting director when the incident took place for Ashanti, has since accused the GFA of selective justice.
He feels his former side were unfairly punished because they did not vote for the desired president of the GFA.
“The show is not even about Inter Allies. The target is AshGold,” he said.
“Nobody from AshGold voted for Kurt Okraku so everything is centred around AshGold. What about Inter Allies who scored the two goals?”
Okraku became GFA president in 2019.
Ghana has long had issues with match-fixing. Bafana Bafana fans felt cheated when a penalty was awarded to the Black Stars during last year’s World Cup qualifiers. Bafana lost the encounter 1-0 and were eliminated from qualifying for this year’s World Cup in Qatar.
Image source: @FootballGhana
