The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has called on the Minister for Youth and Sports, Mahama Ayariga, to fulfill his promise of changing the terms of reference of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry set up to look into Ghana’s 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
This is in reaction to a letter from football’s world football governing body, FIFA, to the Commission stating its displeasure at how the Commission wants to carry out its work.
Justice Senyo Dzamefe, who is the chairman of the Commission said, at its first meeting on Monday that the Commission would not be “intimidated” by any institution or person concerning its operations and that it would continue to work as guided by law.
But the GFA has indicated that the Sports Minister must address FIFA’s concerns in relation to the Commission.
“We want to state clearly that the Sports Minister said he would change the terms of the Commission if FIFA had any issues with it and that is what we are asking at the moment. We are not averse to any investigations but these must be done within the laws of FIFA,” said Ibrahim Sani Dara, the General Secretary in charge of Communications at the Ghana Football Association, on EyeWitness News on Monday.
He continued:”The Minister asked to be part of our communication with FIFA but for two weeks, he delayed our responses to FIFA concerning the Commission.
We are not against the Ministry and we have engaged them every step of the way so we expect him to be true to his word that he will look at the terms of the Commission.
All we want to do is to respect the FIFA laws since we are a member of that body and we want to do what will be in the interest of Ghana.”
WILL THE GFA RESPOND TO THE CALL OF THE COMMISSION?
Sani Dara stated that the GFA would be willing to work with the Commission if they were called to testify but their actions as a national federation would be guided by the rules of FIFA.
“When the Commission writes to us, we will talk to our legal committee and they will advise us on what we will do but we must make it clear that we have no issues with any investigative processes. We have absolute confidence in Justice Dzamefe, Moses Foh-Amoaning and Kofi Anokye because these are people we know.
However, we belong to a body that has specific rules and so we must respect these rules. We will not drag Ghana into another episode of shame where we will affect the lives of the many footballers who use football to feed themselves. All we are saying is that the Minister has to respond to FIFA and do what he promised concerning the Commission and its terms of reference.”
COMMISSION STARTS SITTING
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry began its work on Monday 11th August but the scheduled first sitting was postponed until Wednesday 13th August so that the invited institutions would have enough time to prepare their responses.
