Match fixing: Ashgold has been sanctioned because they did not support Kurt Okraku - Nana Kwesi Darling

Nana Kwesi Darling

Former Sporting Director of Ashanti Gold SC, Nana Kwasi Darling, has alleged that the Ghana Football Association (GFA) of selective justice following the club's demotion to Division Two after being found guilty of match manipulation.

The Disciplinary Committee of the GFA after investigation found the Miners guilty of match manipulation in their 2020/21 Ghana Premier League Matchday 34 game against Inter Allies FC staged at the Obuasi Len Stadium.

The sanction will take effect on in the 2022/23 season,

Nana Kwasi Darlyn, who was Sporting Director of AshGold when the incident happened, is among the officials and players of the miners who the Disciplinary Committee sanctioned.

The veteran football administrator has been handed a four-year ban from all football-related activities for failing to appear before the Committee in accordance with Article 34.5(d)(i) of the Ghana Premier League Regulations.

But reacting to the verdict, the former Bechem United CEO accused the GFA of bias.

According to him, AshGold was targeted because none of the club officials voted for Kurt Okraku during the 2019 GFA General Election.

“I did not see anything until the boy turned to score himself,” he told Luv FM.

“I was telling everybody in the stadium; people could see my reaction that he [Hashmin Musah] must be arrested.

“You know, the whole show is not even about Inter Allies; the target is AshGold because AshGold was and never voted for Kurt Okraku.

“Nobody from AshGold voted for Kurt Okraku and that I joined their number one opposition leader, so everything is now centred around AshGold; what about Inter Allies? The one that scored the two goals?” he quizzed.

Nana Kwasi Darling also alleged his name is on the wrong side of the FA because of his affiliation with former GFA vice president, George Afriyie who was Kurt’s rival during the GFA election in 2019.

“Some of us, our names will appear first because of our affiliation with George Afriyie, but they will not last forever in the FA.

“They will not even cross two terms; they will just go for one term because of their deeds; it will hunt them,” he concluded.

The decison by GFA's Disciplinary Committee relates to a Ghana Premier League game when Ashantigold beat Inter Allies by 7-0. An Allies player, Hashmin Musah, scored two own goals and later admitted his action was to spoil a bet placed on the said game.

However, after the encounter, Musah, admitted in a radio interview that his own goals were scored deliberately to scupper a 5-1 bet that some people had placed on the match.

Both clubs have since been demoted to Ghana’s Division Two, the country’s 3rd tier league, and each fined Ghs 100,000.