Sean Newell - Screamer
The president of Ghana's soccer association was caught on camera negotiating a contract that would have Ghana playing in fixed international matches. The Telegraph and Dispatches conducted a six-month undercover investigation into Ghana's soccer association and found that they were set to pay a company to set up matches and use dirty officials to fix them.
As part of the investigation, reporters from The Telegraph joined a FIFA investigator and posed as Diamond Capital, an investment company that would put on the matches in exchange for payment using referees of their choosing, against FIFA regulations.
Christopher Forsythe, a registered Fifa agent, along with Obed Nketiah, a senior figure in the Ghanaian FA, boasted that they could employ corrupt officials who would rig matches played by Ghana.
The president of the country's football association then met the undercover reporter and investigator, along with Mr Forsythe and Mr Nketiah, and agreed a contract which would see the team play in the rigged matches, in return for payment.
In the video (which won't embed, so watch it here), you can see Forsythe and Nketiah talking over match-fixing strategy and telling investigators that Diamond Capital would have to take care of the referees "because they are going to do a lot of work for you."
The contract stated that it would cost $170,000 (£100,000) for each match organised by the fixers involving the Ghanaian team, and would allow a bogus investment firm to appoint match officials, in breach of Fifa rules.
"You [the company] will always have to come to us and say how you want it to go…the result," said Mr Forsythe. "That's why we will get the officials that we have greased their palms, so they will do it. If we bring in our own officials to do the match…You're making your money."
Later, in Miami earlier this month before a World Cup warm-up against South Korea, soccer president Kwesi Nyantakyi is shown agreeing to the company organizing two probationary games, after the World Cup, so that Ghana could evaluate how the Diamond Capital match-fixing experience went. When asked about the contract, which specifically contemplates Diamond Capital appointing referees, Nyantakyi says he is fine with everything, except the exclusivity. Nyantakyi did not want to fix matches exclusively with Diamond Capital and wanted to keep his options open because a lot of companies were knocking down his door to fix matches for Ghana. Thus the trial period.
In response to the reports, the Ghana Football Association released a statement denying knowledge of the match-fixing nature of the contract, and claims it was never approved by the legal department and therefore never signed. GFA says Forsythe and Nketiah approached Nyantakyi about putting on matches but never mentioned bribing officials. The association reported both men to Ghana police and FIFA.
The most interesting part of the video, though, is Forsythe's spot-on distillation of how one gets paid fixing games with little notice: a questionable call leads people to complain about the ref and maybe even suspect the game is rigged, those same people then eat, get drunk, and go to bed, 24 hours pass and there is another game and everyone's moved on. All the while, you've gotten filthy rich and it's ancient, forgotten history.
Ghana Soccer Official Involved In Match-Fixing Sting
Originally Posted by Teh One Who Knocks
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/wor...t-Belgium.html
I actually missed most of the game, only switched over when ET was starting
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