FIFA to launch probe over Ghana Football Association match-fixing claims

FIFA Vice President Jim Boyce has recently called on the organization to fully investigate the match-fixing reports following an undercover investigation by The Telegraph and Channel Four's Dispatches programme revealed that Ghana's football association president agreed that the national team would take part in games that others were prepared to fix. Boyce added that anyone who is involved with fixing football matches should be criminally penalized with heavt jail sentences and a ban from the game for life.

The British paper said his comments followed FIFA, which has already expressed their intention to evaluate the matter and that Ghana itself has reported the undercover investigation conducted by the Telegraph and Channel Four to the governing body already. The organizer of this year's World Cup also insisted that it takes allegations of match fixing very seriously.

On Monday, it was discovered that Ghana Football Association President Kwesi Nyantakyi had agreed to the undercover reporters posing as members of an investment firm that the national team would be playing arranged international matches. A contract that was given to Nyantakyi indicates that under the agreement, Diamond Capital, the fake firm of the undercover reporters, would have involvement over the choosing of match referees, which is against FIFA rules.

The reporters were introduced by Christopher Forsythe and Obed Nketiah to Nyantakyi. Nketiah is on the management committee of the Ghana Under-20 team. In a video also published by the Telegraph, Forsythe said that match-fixing was a commonplace occurrence in football and boasted that he can arrange fixed matches between Ghana and British teams.

Boyce said about Forsythe, Nketiah and Nyantakyi, "Fifa must make every effort not only to make an example of these two individuals if guilty but to fully investigate if anyone else is involved."

Earlier on, Boyce has already voiced his opinion on investigating the controversial winning of Qatar for the rights to host the 2022 World Cup.

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FIFA, FIFA Vice President Jim Boyce, Ghana Football Association match-fixing, Ghana Football Association, Ghana Football Association World Cup match fixing probe

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