My buying a club is not conflict of interest – Ayariga

Under fire minister of sports, Mahama Ayariga has confirmed he is buying a Division One club, but does not amount to conflict of interest.

The Bawku legislator argued the Ghana FA boss Kwesi Nyantakyi owns a club Wa All Stars and since he (Ayariga) does not manage the football governing body, he sees nothing wrong in owning a club.

“Yes we are in the process of taking over Tamale All Stars which we are transferring to Bawku and in fact I have applied to the GFA for the name to be changed to Bawku United,” Ayariga told the media.

He added: “I don’t see there being any conflict of interest because I don’t manage the FA so I don’t see how that will occur.

“In fact the person who manages the FA is himself a club owner. There is no way there will be a conflict of interest between my job in terms of policy formation among other things and having a team for my constituency.”

“You may know that I am the Member of Parliament for Bawku Central and we should not lose sight of the fact that apart from my responsibilities as a minister I have specific responsibilities as a Member of Parliament to promote entertainment, youth development and sports in my community,” he added.

“We want to find them alternative avenues of engaging their attention instead of having them focus on negative things so we thought that having a football club for the constituency called Bawku United will rebrand Bawku and secondly provide the youth who specifically have talent in football an opportunity for their individual development,” he noted.