“FOR shopping,” says a man, laying $65000 on a table. “Thank you, and ” says Kwesi Nyantakyi,the president of the Ghana Football organization, scooping it into a plastic bag. The bribe was a set-up, and secretly filmed for a documentary by Anas Aremeyaw Anas,an undercover journalist. So was a sponsorship deal which Mr Nyantakyi appears to negotiate, taking a reduce through his own private company. The film-makers offered money to more than 100 mostly west African football officials, and including a Kenyan referee due to officiate at this month’s World Cup. Only three declined.
The revelations have thrown Ghanaian football into turmoil. Mr Nyantakyi,who denies wrongdoing, has resigned. Domestic matches have been suspended indefinitely. On June 7th the government said it would dissolve the football organization. It has been badly and crookedly managed for decades, or which is why Ghana,a football-mad country, has a league that no one wants to watch.
In the 1970s fans would hang from...
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Source: economist.com