Normalisation committee set up to bring Ghana FA back in order

On 14 August, FIFA issued a statement to the Ghana Football Federation (GFA) threatening to ban the country for government interference, but after a Ghana delegation went to Zürich on 16 August, the two parties have agreed to set up a ‘normalisation committee’ aiming to bring back stability in Ghanaian football.

In June this year, Ghanaian investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas published a documentary exposing corruption and mismanagement within Ghanaian football as well as in other African countries. In the documentary, ‘Number 12; When Greed Becomes the Norm’, a number of senior African football officials and referees, including the former GFA president, accept bribes while being filmed by undercover reporters.

The publication of the documentary caused a big crisis in the country’s football administration culminating with the Ghana government initiating legal action in a move to dissolve the federation.

“Having regard to the widespread nature of the apparent rot involving top GFA officials, NSA [National Sports Authority] officials, match commissioners, football administrators and referees, government has decided to take immediate steps to have the GFA dissolved,” said Information minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid in a statement, according to the BBC, at the time.

The attempted dissolution led FIFA to issue a threat to suspend the GFA from FIFA over government interference if the Ghana government did not end the liquidation process within 27 August 2018.

“The suspension would be lifted only once the above-mentioned petition is withdrawn and FIFA is given written proof thereof,” the FIFA statement said.

In response to the FIFA ultimatum, the Ghana government requested a meeting, which took place last Thursday and resulted in the establishment of a ‘normalisation committee’ to replace the GFA ExCo as a compromise.

The composition of the committee will be decided by FIFA in consultation with the Ghana government and CAF, said a FIFA statement about the outcome of the meeting.