The country’s football governing body has teamed up with Fifa to monitor a possible match fixing scandal which could hit the cup game
Ghana Football Association has issued a strong warning to Premier League side Berekum Chelsea and Division One League outfit Unity FC ahead of FA Cup Round of 64 fixture scheduled for December 23 at the Golden City Park in Berekum.
Reports were rife late Wednesday evening and Thursday morning of a possible scandal as results were believed to have already been determined even before kick off.
As a result, Ghana FA has warned both clubs and other clubs that will be playing on Thursday.
“The Compliance and Integrity Unit of the Ghana Football Association in collaboration with FIFA Integrity through Sport Radars Fraud Detection System (FDS), will be monitoring some selected matches in the MTN FA Cup and League matches this week starting from today’s game between Unity FC and Berekum Chelsea FC at the Golden City Park,” a GFA statement read.
“This follows series of intelligence picked up by the GFA Compliance and Integrity Unit.
“In as much as the GFA believes in the sporting integrity of the clubs, the Association wishes to send a strong warning to all clubs that a Monitoring Team have been deployed to the match and should there be an establishment of a possible match fixing, the GFA trigger its disciplinary and ethics mechanism.
“The Monitoring Mechanism have been deployed for other selected matches in the Round of 64 of the MTN FA Cup competition and the weekend League matches.
“Club management members, coaches and players are kindly reminded of their responsibilities in upholding the hard earned sporting integrity of the sport and are entreated to resist any attempt by fake betting syndicates and to report any form of approach or whatsoever immediately to the GFA.
“The GFA wishes to also assure all sporting public and stakeholders that it wouldn’t relent on it’s effort to uphold the very sporting integrity that binds the beautiful game in the country,” the statement added.
“The membership of the GFA, Match Officials, the public and all stakeholders are hereby encouraged to channel any information or concerns in this respect, if any, in relation to any match to the Compliance and Integrity Unit on hotline: +233 59 337 1735 and send all emails to [email protected],” the statement concluded.
Last season, Ashanti Gold and Inter Allies were alleged to have played a match of convenient and the case is still under investigation.