BBC African football analyst Nick Cavell says it seems unlikely that Ghana will be able to take part in Wednesday's vote for the next host of the 2026 World Cup, which pits Morocco against a joint bid from US, Canada and Mexico.<doc-sep>Nyantakyi has not replied to multiple requests for comment while the GFA has said it would cooperate with any investigation. (Source: AP) Nyantakyi has not replied to multiple requests for comment while the GFA has said it would cooperate with any investigation. (Source: AP) The head of Ghana’s soccer federation, Kwesi Nyantakyi, said on Friday he had resigned after he was suspended by global soccer body FIFA for possible ethics violations having been accused of taking kickbacks. Nyantakyi, a member of FIFA’s decision-making Council, also apologised to Ghana president Nana Akufo-Addo and the government for what he called his “indiscretion”. “After a meeting of the Executive Committee this afternoon I decided to resign as President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA),” he said in a statement. Nyantakyi, who has been GFA president since 2005 and was elected to the FIFA Council in September 2016, was filmed by an investigative journalist in a hotel room appearing to take a $65,000 bribe from a supposed businessman seeking to sponsor the Ghanaian football league. FIFA said on Friday it was suspending Nyantakyi for 90 days. The Ghanaian government has begun a process to dissolve the national soccer body, Information Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid said on Thursday. On Friday, Ghana’s police locked down the GFA offices, declaring the building a crime scene. Segments of the recording by undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas appeared to show Nyantakyi also demanding kickbacks to pass on to top government officials, including the presidency. Ghana president Nana Akufo-Addo has called for criminal investigations against Nyantakyi. FIFA has not yet commented on whether any action will be taken over the government’s plan to dissolve the GFA. The global soccer body does not accept any third party, including government, interference in its member associations. It could respond by suspending Ghana’s membership, which would mean the country’s national teams could no longer compete in international competition. Ghana, who have played at three previous World Cups, missed out on the this year’s tournament which starts in Russia on June 14.<doc-sep>Ghana’s Football Association, the governing body of soccer for the country, was dissolved by the Ghanian government on Thursday in the wake of allegations of corruption and bribery. The news was made public in a release from Ghana’s Ministry of Information. The announcement seems to stem from revelations made in a BBC documentary titled “Betraying the Game,” which is being released Thursday, that documents dozens of major African footballing officials taking bribes before and around matches. Based on verbiage released before the documentary, much of the investigation seems to be focused on Ghanaian football, and the Ghanaian president’s statement certainly seems to be in line with the documentary’s findings. According to the BBC, the documentary shows Ghana FA president Kwesi Nyantakyi taking $65,000 from an undercover reporter who was posing as someone interested in investing in the program. Nyantakyi has not yet commented on the charges. Football Associations being dissolved has always been a tricky thing in the history of FIFA, who prefer that local governments stay out of the sport’s business as much as possible. That said, if recent history is any indication, FIFA could suspend Ghanaian Football’s activities until a fuller investigation can be made. When the Nigerian FA was dissolved six years ago by a Nigerian federal court, FIFA temporarily suspended then ultimately reinstated the FA without too many major changes. Ghana failed to qualify for this summer’s World Cup, finishing a distant third in their CAF qualifying group behind Egypt and Uganda. Ghana is playing Iceland in a friendly match as of this writing, though a possible friendly against Argentina in the coming days may be scrapped.<doc-sep>How Fifa, football's world governing body, will react to the decision to dissolve the body remains to be seen. Its laws do not allow government interference in football administration, and it has previously banned countries, including Nigeria, from international competition for falling foul of the rule.<doc-sep>
The governing body of world football on Friday announced a 90-day suspension on the president of the Ghana Football Association, who has been at the centre of corruption claims. FIFA said its ethics committee had “provisionally banned” Kwesi Nyantakyi from “all football activities at both national and international level” with immediate effect. READ ALSO: You have no case to answer, judge tells murder suspect The suspension is pending an investigation into whether he had broken FIFA’s code of ethics, it added in a statement. Nyantakyi was this week accused in an undercover documentary of requesting $11 million from reporters posing as investors to secure government contracts. He also allegedly tried to profit personally from a $5 million-a-year, five-year sponsorship deal with the GFA. Ghana’s government on Thursday said the documentary had exposed “gross malfunctioning… characterised by widespread fraud, corruption and bribery” at the GFA. Steps were now being taken to dissolve the body, said information minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid. The conduct of all GFA officials and the suspended head of the National Sports Authority was referred to police for further investigation and any “appropriate action”, he added. Football is Ghana’s national sport and the revelations have sent shockwaves through the country, just under a week before the start of the World Cup finals in Russia. Ghana’s senior men’s team, the Black Stars, failed to qualify. Before the last tournament in Brazil in 2014, Nyantakyi was accused of signing a $170,000-deal for Ghana to play in a friendly organised by match fixers. He denied signing any contract. (AFP)