EDITORIAL: Kojo Bonsu On Collision Course With Nyantakyi-Led FA

It has been extremely intriguing how swords crossed each other earlier this week when Kojo Bonsu, a keen football aficionado mistakenly described as a football administrator, who aspired to become the GFA chairman in vain in 2005 made a startling allegations against the Ghana Football Association and the need to ensure checks and balances in the system.

Kojo thinks corruption stinks at the GFA.

Naturally I could realize the jolt at the GFA as the president of the association obviously disenchanted by the claims of the former Adidas representative described the allegations as unmeritorious, bogus and without basis.

I know how affable Kwasi Nyantakyi is but his voice for once depicted someone hurt and clearly demonstrated he was up against Kojo Bonsu. If you want to understand why the issue is not so simple, check the background of Kojo Bonsu and you would realize that somehow, those who think the battle is political are near-perfect.

If Nyantakyi came to power beating Kojo Bonsu in a special election in 2005, then naturally there is some form of political bad blood already between them but there were no names mentioned in the Graphic publication on Monday 23rd November 2009. However as the head of the GFA, whenever there is credit, Nyantakyi savours it, and so is the issue not different in times of misfortune. As the saying goes �he who carries the pot of water also bears responsibility when the pot gets broken�.

The big question is what is Kojo Bonsu looking for? How about the timing, maybe it�s not important to you but Ghana should be thinking about their preparation for Angola and South Africa 2010 Nations Cup and World cup respectively.

All of a sudden the FA finds itself trying to defend their credibility and indeed no one can begrudge them for trying to come clean on the matter. The Public Interest Committee monster has kept rearing its head every now and then but what special thing will that committee bring that the Ministry cannot do. As far as I understand the interest of the public in football is the laurels Ghana gains and the achievement, every other thing is fringe.

For example Ghana extravagantly rewarded the Satellites to the tune of $750,000 after emerging champions of the world in Egypt and everybody applauded the government. What was the interest of the public; that the nation spend heavily on the tournament which gave Ghana nothing but a trophy? Sometimes it�s not all about money.

Kojo Bonsu must be frustrated with the level of success that Nyantakyi and his men are attaining, twice qualifying for the world cup, winning the world cup Under 20, securing huge league sponsorship for the next three years and so on and so forth is just too much glory to behold. Maybe his claims of corruption at the FA could be true but the auditor general is on record to have gone through the accounts of the GFA and more so there is constant checks by the ministry on the budgets of the association before final approval by Ministry of finance .

If the man thinks there is corruption at the FA, which is possible, he needs to point out specifics otherwise his learnred friends at the other side will make a joke out of him. Truthfully I was shocked when Kojo Bonsu said Ghana has spent $3m on the just ended qualifiers for the world cup and Nations cup. It was six matches in all and there were no winning bonuses in the last two as Ghana failed to win after the whirlwind display in the first four games.

By calculation if the 18 players per match cost Ghana $10,000 for each player, it would have totaled $720,000 and what else was going to cost us the remaining $2.28m? - maybe the airfare to Mali, Sudan and nearby Benin. Quite interesting.

I think the GFA must not take this for granted as Ghanaians are fascinated about this revelation. Just tell Ghana something - why and how you spent $3m on our world cup qualification. Then it means everything is gone even before we get to South Africa since the world cup will fetch Ghana $5.3m and if Ghana has blown more than half on qualification alone then God save us. I�m sure the rest will go into preparation for the world cup proper and Ghana will be home and dry.

At least I heard from the mouth of the GFA president and he cannot deny it and that the $3m was possibly spent since budgets for each match totaled about $500,000. Of course football is expensive but this world cup ticket seems too costly.

Now back to the �Public interest Confusion�, after listening to former deputy sports minister, Hon. O B Amoah, I realized the PIC issue came because they (NPP government) wanted to find out why FIFA frowns upon the government appointing the Chairman of the FA whiles government finances the association. FIFA turned them down and suggested an alternative which was the PIC and it was not to have a direct control over the football association.

Again even if the PIC is formed, FIFA stipulated that its membership was to be constituted of three FA people and two from the government. Moreover the members of the committee could only be accepted by the executive committee of the GFA and so there was still not going to be direct governmental control even if the PIC was formed.

Do you now understand why the former government did not press for that committee to be formed? Currently there is a serious rapport between the ministry of youth and sports and the FA after Hon. Rasheed Pelpuo assumed office but why did it take Kojo Bonsu to tell the entire nation that government is not involved in football matters enough.

Perhaps the businessman Kojo Bonsu does not know he is only exposing the minister as not being open-eyed enough to realize the rot at the FA as the minister keeps approving the budget of the association every now and then. I have already started counting to the next GFA elections in 2011 as Kojo Bonsu says he is not interested in the FA job again and that he is now bigger than the GFA presidency; I don�t know his position now but I have every right not to believe him until he sits out of the next elections. Oops! I even forgot that he does not even qualify since he is required to have served actively as a football administrator for the past five years.

Conclusively, I would like to state that the fact that government has left Kojo Bonsu to be on his own defending himself in his clash with the GFA means they are not ready to dip into football matters in a way that will attract chastisement from FIFA. It looks clear Kojo Bonsu has failed again just like his defeat in the last FA elections. Its good Ghanaians are now discerning and nobody can take the nation for a ride to serve his whims and caprices.

Source: Yaw Osagyefo Anaman/peacefmonline/ghana