President of King Faisal Football Club Alhaji Karim Grusah has leveled wild match-fixing allegations against champions Asante Kotoko.
The controversial football administrator made the claims when he was watering down accusations that he went negotiating for Kotoko to play it soft against his struggling side in last Wednesday’s First Capital Plus Premier League match. Faisal won the Kumasi derby 1-0 thanks to a late Wilson Andoh goal to breathe life into their survival campaign.
An incensed Grusah then alleged that Kotoko are the most successful Ghanaian club because of their long-standing history of fixing matches.
“When they (Kotoko) beat us 3-0 in the first round, we accepted it in good fate but there were a lot of things that passed under the carpet that we cannot say it on air, that is what they do, a lot of things happened in the dressing room that you will be shocked if I tell you,” Grusah told Kessben FM.
“Whoever said Kotoko sold the match to King Faisal is not telling the truth,” he added.
“They (Kotoko) have been playing fix matches to win trophies in Ghana and this they have admitted in the presence of Otumfuo (Asantehene Osei Tutu II) that they bought some matches to win the league, we were all here in Kumasi and we heard it.
“If I want to tell you the history of Kotoko and what I know of them, you will know Kotoko is not a team.
“I was in the stadium when Kotoko played a match in this town at the Baba Yara stadium and the goalkeeper was reading a graphic in post whiles the match was still in play because they had fixed the match and nobody was shooting to him.
“Ask Osei Kofi (Reverend), he played in that match for Kotoko and he and the other Kotoko players were joking in the game throughout, they will get to the Adansiman goalkeeper and then turn back to their own half again.
“You people were not born by that time so you don’t know Kotoko, I think it was in the 1968/69 season and they fixed a match so that Corner Stones got relegated.
“When you are based in Kumasi as a club, Kotoko will try to destroy your team because they see you as a competitor.
“Me I know Ghana football, I know football and I have studied football so I know what I’m talking about, I know Kotoko history,” he stressed.