Accra, Feb 1 GNA - The Disciplinary Committee of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) have said it has found Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Real Tamale United (RTU) not guilty of playing a match of convenience in their GT Premier League match played at Tamale on November 5 last year. In arriving at the decision, the Committee said they were left with no choice but to dismiss the case since all those who made the allegations - Nurudeen Wemah and Iddrisu Abio, a player and supporter of RTU failed to substantiate their cases when they appeared before the Committee.
The Committee also found Mr Adam Mukaila, Chairman of RTU not guilty of promoting, encouraging or facilitating the playing of a match of convenience.
A statement signed by the Chairman of the Committee copied to the when called upon to do so.
The statement said in view of the circumstances, the Committee finds the conduct of Wemah as amounting to misconduct within the meaning of Article 40(7) I of the GFA regulations.
The Committee has therefore suspended Wemah from playing football for the first round of the 2006 football league season. It said Wemah and Abio could not make such damaging and disparaging statements to the whole world with such recklessness and yet refuse to substantiate them.
"Persons who make such serious allegations must know that they have an obligation to football and the country at large to at least stand by what they say as it is the only way we can punish or get evidence to punish those who offend the laws of football in Ghana".
The GFA after the November 5, 2005, league match between RTU and Kotoko at Tamale, which ended abruptly, referred the allegations made on various FM Radio stations that the match was fixed to the Disciplinary Committee for further investigation.
The Committee invited the two clubs involved, RTU and Kotoko and all persons mentioned or concerned with the allegations, including Wemah, Hamza Mohammed, another player of RTU, Abio, Alhaji Adam Mukaila, Mr Nantongmah and Accra Hearts of Oak to appear before it. The Committee dwelled on an interview granted to Melody FM, a radio station based at Takoradi by Wemah alleging that the RTU Chairman called the team's captain Hamza Mohammed and some other players of the Club to play a fixed match against Kotoko, a demand which he said the skipper and the players refused to do.
Another allegation the Committee looked at was a claim that appeared in the Daily Graphic of November 10 from a group calling themselves Concerned Supporters of RTU led by Abio alleging that before the match, it is was clear that the match had been fixed and that they have evidence that the management of the club were involved. The Committee said that even though Wemah agreed that he made the comments to the FM station and that the chairman he was referring to was Alhaji Mukaila, the Chairman later appeared before the Committee to deny all the charges.
Wemah later on said all that he said to the FM station were not true and that he made those allegations against Mr Mukaila because he was frustrated after the match.
In the case of the Concerned Supporters, the Committee said their allegation was not specific and on all the two occasions that Abio was invited to appear before it, he failed to show up. The statement said the Committee decided to punish Wemah because though the player might have rebuffed the attempts, the mere fact that there was an attempt to encourage or facilitate a fixed match may amount to an offence even if denied by the accused. It said that the failure of Wemah to confirm his allegations before the Committee was significant, and in its opinion, it would be wrong to find the clubs or persons liable based on only the evidence of Wemah. 01 Feb. 06
