The Ghana Football Association has released a statement to officially react to the allegations of bribery and match-fixing levelled against them by their South African counterparts.
The South African Football Association, after their lone goal defeat to the Black Stars at the Cape Coast Stadium last sunday, have made a series of allegations which seeks to impugn corruption on the part of Ghana.
Following their claims, the South Africans have submitted a formal petition to FIFA calling for investigations into the match and calling for a rematch.
However, even before a formal response is submitted to FIFA, the GFA has issued a statement rubbishing the allegations by the South Africans.
Parts of the GFA statement reads, “We wish to state categorically that the allegations are frivolous, baseless and lacks merits and should be treated with all the contempt that it deserves. These allegations from South Africa Football Association are nothing but a planned scheme and a calculated attempt to shift focus from the defeat, divert attention from their failure to qualify for the play-offs and unjustly dent the hard-earned victory of the Black Stars”.
The statement continued, “In fact, the Ghana Football Association will not allow the SAFA to visit its incompetence on it through these allegations. Is it not strange that the Coach of the South African National Team thought that FIFA will use Head-to-Head when two teams end the group stage with the same number of points and had to be corrected by the media? The South African team actually thought Ghana needed a 2-0 margin to qualify when Ghana needed any win to qualify per the FIFA Regulations on the qualifiers.
Again, is it not strange that when the Technical Team of the Black Stars was analysing each player of the South African team (including their goalkeepers and goals they have conceded and how they respond during penalty kicks) SAFA says competitor analysis is alien to the game of football. Maybe they should check from the top teams of the world. This is what The Black Stars do for the preparation of every match, as it is expected of every professional football team setup.
Indeed, it has become necessary to respond to the baseless allegations because it is imperative for us (GFA) to protect the integrity of football in Africa and across the globe”.
Ghana is expected to submit an official response to FIFA by tomorrow.
Source: GhanaFeed.Com
