Nyaho explains court action to FIFA

Accra, April 17, GNA - Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakoloe, Chairman of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) said his resort to court was not to derail the administration of football in the country but to prevent a possible destabilisation of the Management Board of the FA.

"I would have had no feet to stand on to seek reforms of the structures of the Ghana football if I had not asked the court to merely restrained the Executive Council from removing me for doing no wrong", he said in letter to Jerome Champagne, Assistant General Secretary of FIFA and copied to its President Sepp Blatter.

Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe said the Executive Council had drawn strength from the confusion created by the constitution of the GFA to create more misunderstanding by assuming functions reserved for the Management Board.

"I believe you understand the implication of it on Ghana football", the letter also copied to GNA Sports in Accra said.

The GFA Chairman said he went to court on a matter of principle to preserve his name and image which he alleged were being tarnished and reminding Blatter of his own court action against some members of Executive of FIFA particularly Somalian Farrar Ado on corrupt charges. He complained that even though FIFA wrote to the GFA through its General Secretary, Kofi Nsiah, on March 23, that the FA's statutes were extremely complex with the superposition of three bodies, the Congress, the Executive Council and the Management Board, he had not seen the letter.

"Whatever knowledge I have of your letter, I had it through a journalist". "The General Secretary of the GFA, for whatever reasons has simply refused to inform me about your letter, let alone make me see it", Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe said.

He said the local press has reported that Mr Nsiah has rather handed the letter to the Executive Council at its last meeting after the content of the letter became public.

The Chairman said the actions of Mr Nsiah might have accounted for Mr Champagne's recent comment about him on the BBC.

"It is obvious Mr Champagne has been misled into assuming the position he currently holds about me, what an unfortunate perception," the letter added.

The letter ordered the GFA to streamline and simplify its structures with a four-power system - the legislative (congress), executive (executive committee) and judicial (disciplinary and appeals committees), as was the case in FIFA, Confederations and football associations around the world.

FIFA also stated that it frowned on the appointment of government nominees to the GFA Board, which should consist solely of democratically elected members.