Sports News of Friday, 17 May 2019

Source: ghanaguardian.com

Asante Kotoko caught up in alleged match-fixing scandal

Asante Kotoko Players Asante Kotoko Players

Ghana Premier League giants Asante Kotoko have been accused of attempting to bribe a referee during their match against Ashantigold.

Retired referee Robert Tawiah Mensah has claimed that an official of the Porcupine Warriors approached him to facilitate bribing referees during their Special Competition over the weekend.

According to the retired referee, one Kofi Oduro, popularly known as Hon. Sheeshela, who is known to be a close confidante of Kotoko chairman Dr. Kwame Kyei is demanding a refund of a supposed GH 8,000 he paid to the match officials.

"It's true that before the Ashanti Gold SC match with Kotoko, monies were given to the match officials by a Kotoko official. I was Techiman when the operations manager of Kotoko called 'Shishila' said he wants to meet the Referees for the match who were coming from Tamale" Referee Mensah told Nimde3 FM

"He [Shishila] said he has money for the officials led by Referee Ali Alhassan, so a meeting should be held in Techiman since the referees said they can't meet us in Tamale after I called them"

"Shishila came to Techiman with a Nissan Visen numbered AS 2988 - 18 to talked with with that we can leave for Tamale to meet the referees for their match against Ashanti Gold"

"We met the Referees at the Tamale STC yard and gave them an undisclosed amount of money which was in a black polythene bag"

"He gave me 500 cedis for helping him to meet the referees because he said his team needed the points badly"

"After the match, he [Shishila] called me that he wants to retrieve his money from the referees because they failed to deliver as they promised"

"He called the referees also told them he needs his 8000 cedis because they couldn't help his side to beat Ashanti Gold" he added

The Ghana FA Normalisation Committee is expected to open a formal investigation into the matter.