Seven months into the Tiger Eye PI expose on football corruption that led to Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi tumbling as a football administrator of international repute, the former Ghana Football Association (GFA) chairman still believes that he did nothing wrong.
He said the Tiger Eye PI operated like the terrorist group ISIS.
But, Mr Anas Aremeyaw Anas has rebutted the effusions of the embattled banned Ghana FA Chairman would not deter him from the fight against corruption.
Nyantakyi speaks
Mr Nyantakyi yesterday accused Anas and his Tiger Eye PI team of taking $400,000 from his enemies within the GFA to bring him down.
According to him, his detractors within the GFA sponsored the Anas expose with $400,000 because they wanted to see his back as GFA president by whatever means possible.
“Yes, it was sponsored. What they did was not investigation,” Mr Nyantakyi said on NET 2, a private television station in Accra, yesterday.
Breaking his silence on circumstances surrounding his involvement in the alleged Number 12 video that exposed scandals in football in Ghana and Africa, which broke in June 2018, Mr Nyantakyi described Tiger Eye PI as a criminal organisation that operated like the terrorist group ISIS.
No Licence
According to Mr Nyantakyi, Tiger Eye PI did not have a licence “to do what they have been doing – going round, setting up people, recording and embarrassing them. Tiger Eye PI is a criminal organisation that operates like ISIS”.
He said it was illegal for the Tiger Eye PI to be setting up people, recording and embarrassing them in public.
Anas denies
Denying the allegations in an interview with the Daily Graphic, Anas said his team had achieved a lot over the years in exposing corruption, which is a danger to society.
He said he was mindful of a pending GH¢25 million defamation suit he had filed against Mr Nyantakyi and for that reason, he would not toe Mr Nyantakyi’s line.
He, however, made it clear that if exposing corruption for the greater good of society amounted to terrorism, “then you can term it as terrorism against corruption”.
Nyantakyi banned
FIFA’s adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee in October 2018 banned Mr Nyantakyi for life from all football-related activities.
The adjudicatory chamber found Mr Nyantakyi guilty of having violated Article 19 (conflict of interest), Article 21 (Bribery and corruption) and Article 22 (Commission) of the FIFA Code of Ethics, 2012 edition.
Mr Nyantakyi has additionally been fined 500,000 Swiss Francs (more than GH¢2.4 million).
According to a FIFA statement, Mr Nyantakyi was notified on October 30, 2018 about the ban.
The adjudicatory chamber carried out a formal investigation into Mr Nyantakyi’s activities after he was filmed apparently accepting a “cash gift” in an undercover documentary titled Number 12.
Number 12
Mr Nyantakyi was filmed in the undercover investigation by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas taking $65,000 (£48,000) from an undercover reporter pretending to be a businessman.
Soon after the ban on June 8, Nyantakyi resigned from the posts he had held with football’s world governing body, FIFA, and the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
He left his role on the FIFA Council and stepped aside from his roles with CAF, including as First Vice-President, the most senior figure at the confederation after its President, Ahmad.
Apart from the FIFA suspension, Nyantakyi also resigned as President of the GFA on June 8, 2018 following an executive committee meeting.
