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Corruption Has Destroyed Ghana Football – Osafo Maafo

Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo has pointed out the increasing rate of corruption in Ghana football as the main reason for the falling standards of the local league.
 
The Ghana Premier League has regressed in recent years and has been without a headline sponsor for two years running.
Speaking at the launch of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Week, the Former Sports Minister who was at the helm when Ghana first qualified for the World Cup in 2006, called on football authorities to be transparent in their running of affairs in order to win back the trust and interest of the public.

“I have been Minister for Sports before, and it was during my time that Ghana qualified for the World Cup for the first time.

“One of the first things I did was to invite the match officials to my office, because the league becomes important when people see fairness.

“You destroy the league of the country when people know that matches are being fixed. Corruption got so deep in football after 2010 that Ghanaians stopped being interested in the local league,” he said.

He also stressed the importance of cleaning up the league system in order to have a positive reflection on the Black Stars.

“Corruption in the officiating of Ghana Premier League matches has had a very negative effect on our football, to the extent that local players hardly feature in the Black Stars call-ups these days.

“That is certainly not the best, as we used to get about half of the Black Stars from the local league, with most of them coming from Hearts, Kotoko, Olympics, Eleven Wise and a few others. And these players were very competitive and conquered Africa.

“These teams also conquered Africa in their own right, but how are our teams doing in Africa these days? The winner of our league cannot even make it through the first round of the CAF competition.

“We must make sure that those who are guilty of these corrupt offences are found out and punished accordingly.”

Source: Citifmonline

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