The Ghana Football Association has officially said that it has not involved itself in inducing match referees for World Cup qualifiers on the continent.
The comment follows the declarations made by the Vice-Chairman of the Black Stars Management Committee, Wilfried Osei, on Citi FM’s “Sports Panorama” that the non-payment of unclassified payments cost Ghana a place in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Osei explained that the unclassified payments were used for several things including getting referees and match officials to handle Ghana’s matches fairly in the qualifiers.
He stated that such inducement was commonplace on the continent since other countries did same to influence important results in the quest to qualify for the World Cup finals.
However, Ibrahim Saani Daara, spokesperson of the Ghana Football Association, said in an interview on Happy FM on Wednesday that the GFA had never been involved in inducing referees.
“We, as a football association, do not believe in inducement and we have never been involved in bribery. We have never done such a thing before.”
“When a referee is appointed for a match, by default, you expect him to be fair. That is a given. If and when we do have issues with a referee, there are ways we can proceed. One of such means was the recent protest we filed against South African referee Daniel Bennett. CAF has modalities to deal with referees who do not perform well and we are satisfied with them.”
Saani Daara went on to state that unclassified payments were normally used for activities such as mobilising supporters for the Black Stars matches and organise scouting and reconnaissance trips ahead of Black Stars matches.
He explained that these things were valuable and helped the team.
