Former Ghana soccer player Abedi Pele (L) from the delegation of Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama speaks with Ivorian Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko at the presidential palace in Abidjan, September 5, 2012. REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon (IVORY COAST – Tags: POLITICS SPORT SOCCER)
Former Ghana captain Abedi Pele has been appointed to help run football in the country in the wake of a corruption scandal that saw the government dissolve the sport’s governing body.
Pele, a three-time African footballer of the year who played most of his club football in Europe, was named in a five-member interim committee to manage the sport.
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Other members include businessman Kofi Amoah and the president of the Ghana League Clubs Association Cudjoe Fianoo, according to a government statement on Wednesday.
Another member is Osei Kofi, who played for Ghana in the 1960s and is now a church minister.
The High Court of Ghana on Tuesday granted a request from attorney general Gloria Akuffo to suspend the Ghana Football Association and its officials.
That followed the broadcast of a documentary in which the head of the GFA, Kwesi Nyantakyi, was accused of requesting $11 million from reporters posing as investors to secure government contracts.
Nyantakyi, who was a senior member of the sport’s world governing body FIFA and regional equivalent the Confederation of African Football, has since stepped down.
Information minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid said last week the documentary had highlighted “widespread fraud, corruption and bribery” at the GFA.
Urgent action was needed to “sanitise” football administration, he added.
Source: G Sport
