‘Government Won’t Compromise On Sovereignty In FIFA Meeting’ – Oppong Nkrumah

Government has reiterated its commitment to not compromise on the sovereignty of the nation ahead of a meeting at the FIFA Headquarters in Switzerland on Thursday, August 16 between its three-member team and officials of FIFA in an attempt to resolve a looming ban from international football by the world football governing body.

FIFA in a letter to the Dr Kofi Amoah-led Liason Team currently managing Ghana football accused the government of third-party interference and gave the country an August 27 ultimatum to withdraw its application to the High Court to commence liquidation process of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) or risk being banned from all football-related activities.

FIFA’s General Secretary, Fatma Samoura, in the letter said the world body considered the government’s legal process to liquidate the FA as “undue influence in the affairs of the GFA” and violates FIFA Statutes.

However, explaining government’s position on the matter, the Minister Designate for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the state disagrees with FIFA but will continue to engage with the world football governing body because they are hopeful of resolving the matter.

“It is important that as we have engaged with them, even to set-up a Liason Committee and to get to this point we further engage with them on how to arrive at that solution without necessarily encountering an infringement of Article 14 or Article 19 but that ought not to be interpreted in any way that Ghana will be willing to throw away its sovereignty through the window just because,” Mr Nkrumah said yesterday at a press briefing in Accra.

“We believe that the two of us can come to a common goal, FIFA’s objective and our objective appears to be the same and we believe that by re-engaging we can come to that common point but our sovereignty, our clarity to deal with the matters that we have witnessed are things that we will not compromise on”.

He stressed: “For the avoidance of doubt, the government of Ghana does not share that position that FIFA put out but we are continuing to engage with them because we believe that we can still find a common ground to achieve the same objective. That is what this latest round of meetings slated for Thursday is expected to conclude on”.

Source: Graphic Online