When there's no punishment for corrupt officials, everyone in the country doesn't care about the repercussions of the two old devils: bribery and corr
When there’s no punishment for corrupt officials, everyone in the country doesn’t care about the repercussions of the two old devils: bribery and corruption.
Match fixing has bedevilled Ghana’s domestic football for quite a long time and the country is weeping for someone to save her. In the last decade, there has not been a single season that matches have not been fixed from week 24 of the Ghana Premier League.
The club will play their hearts out right from the onset but along the way, almost all of them will engage in fixing games.
Who exactly should we blame? There are so many factors for it and the saddest thing is that no one in the country is determined to find a solution to it.
Former Ghana Football Association chairman, Dr Nyaho Tamakloe, now Board Member of the struggling Accra Hearts of Oak, has made serious allegations about Samartex SC’s triumph of the 2023-24 Ghana Premier League title.
The veteran sports administrator, in an exclusive interview with 3FM, boldly revealed that Samartex won the league through fixing matches.
“Unfortunately, the issue that we have in national politics has found its way into football,” Nyaho said. “Very sad! You ask yourself how can one unknown club win 16 out of 17 matches on their home ground. If you are a bit into football, ask yourself this simple question. And the 16 matches that they won on their home grounds gave them about 48 points, making them winners already. And this is through corruption and bribery,” Tamakloe revealed.
Samartex’s incredible home record is mind-blowing. Out of the 17 games played at the Nsenkyire Sports Arena in Samaraboi, the Timber Giants won 16 and lost just one. The defeat was a 1-0 defeat against the newly promoted Nations FC.
“That is why at the moment clubs like Hearts of Oak who will not give money – and people should listen to me very carefully – or Kotoko have all fallen back but I can tell them we are coming back,” Nyaho Tamakloe added.
The Hearts of Oak Board Member emphatically said that part of Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko’s struggles are due to their unwillingness to buy matches.
“The two leading clubs shall come back in a different form and those who have been creating this confusion that is destroying Ghana football must be dealt with. It is the reason why we are nowhere on the continent. Football has been taken over by betting,” he concluded.
The issue of betting is destroying Ghana’s Football and the authorities must at all costs find a way to end it.
Samartex will represent Ghana in the 2024-2025 CAF Champions League season. The Samaraboi-based club is confident they can make Ghana proud.
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