President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kwasi Nyantakyi has denied rumors making rounds that Sierra Leone, one of the three countries hardest hit by the deadly Ebola virus, will be playing their national team home matches in Ghana.
Mr. Nyantakyi clarified the issue in an interview on OK FM’s Morning Show on Wednesday.
Speaking to host of the programme, Kwame Nkrumah Tikesie, he said “It is not true Sierra Leone will be playing in Ghana. The truth is that because of Ebola, CAF has decided that Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone cannot play their home matches in their countries.
The Sierra Leonean FA therefore wrote to Ghana that they wanted to play their home games in Ghana and we replied that we didn’t have the power to decide whether they can move their home matches to Ghana or not.
We told them that they could write to the government and request and that it is the government that can grant or decline that request since the FA lacks that power and competence to do that. “, he added.
Explaining further he debunked the rumors that the FA had granted the Sierra Leoneans permission, noting that the FA didn’t even have the power to do so.
“If anyone wants to play in Ghana, they need clearance from the government of Ghana and that is why we told them that if that is what they want, they can get their foreign ministry to write to our foreign ministry so that our foreign ministry can together with the other relevant government agencies like the Ministry of Sports and Ministry of Health decide whether to grant them or not
Even in normal situations, when any nation writes to the GFA about an intent to play their matches in Ghana, we forward it to the Sports Ministry so they handle it at the governmental level but in this particular case we made it very clear to them that because of Ebola, they should write directly to the government.
So as far as I know Sierra Leone won’t be playing any of their matches in Ghana”, he noted.
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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