Transparency International damns GFA

The financial operations of the Ghana Football Association lack transparency according to a report by the anti-corruption agency Transparency International.

The body studied how 209 football associations are run around the world including the GFA and concludes that there are fertile grounds for corruption

It is a report that will do little for the reputation of Ghana Football Association which has long suffered from the perception that it is a corrupt body.

The transparency International study ranks the GFA amongst the worst run football associations in Africa in the company of Eritrea, Burkina Faso, Comoros and Algeria.

That conclusion is based on its zero score in the areas of financial accounts, organisational statutes, annual activity report and code of ethics in the Football Governance League Table.

The report claims that 168 members of FIFA, Ghana included do not make financial records publicly available. Transparency International fears that the lack of information publicly on how money's generated from football is spent provides a fertile ground for corruption.

The Ghana Football Association says it will respond to the report at the appropriate time. Any response is likely to claim that they have working statutes and make an annual activity report available at its annual congress even if those are not available on its website.

This though remains a damming verdict especially off the back of recent controversies involving money.

A storm over the payment of around 350,000 dollars to old executive committee members has just died down after the GFA president claimed they were merely spending their own money. The GFA had also been taken to task by the British High Commissioner who wondered what exactly the body did with monies it received from FIFA.

The world football governing body published audited accounts on their websites that showed they had provided 1.25million dollars to the GFA in financial support but critics say evidence of that on the ground is thin. Transparency International says it believes that “football fans have the right to know how monies generated through their interest in football is spent, as does the general public because governments invest tax payers’ money in football at national level.” There will be many nodding in agreement to that.