Possible scandals involving fixed football matches have started shaking the world living in the championship in Brazil. At first, the German "Spiegel" magazine reported that the result of the World Cup match between Cameroon and Croatia was fixed, and these days another football story in Ghana unfolds - two men were arrested for planning to organize several fixed matches with the Ghanaian national team.
Last week, Christopher Forsythe and Obed Nketiah were imprisoned in Ghana, suspected of attempting to organize a fixed match. The possible scandal was reported to the local police by the President of the Ghana Football Federation Kwesi Nyantakyi, although he himself is among the suspects.
The crafty men were exposed by journalists from "The Telegraph" and the Fourth Television Channel - the latter conducted negotiations with alleged all-powerful football leaders who promised that several fixed matches would be played, and one of the teams would be the Ghana national team.
Ch. Forsythe and O. Nketiah said they would organize the matches if given all the authority to do so. They also claimed that the Ghana Football Federation needed to be bribed - requiring $30,000 USD.
The men explained that there was no need to negotiate with the Ghana football team - the most important thing was to appoint their "prepared" referees for the match, who would "make" the necessary result.
The journalists assured that permission to hold the "odd match" was also given by the President of the Ghana Football Federation K. Nyantakyi, however, the latter clarified that no agreement to organize the match was signed, and the request was directed to the federation's legal department.
The Ghana football leaders distanced themselves from the supposedly organized fixed football match and promised to take legal action against the journalists.
Meanwhile, FIFA requested data and evidence from the German magazine "Spiegel" to prove that the Cameroon team played a fixed match at the World Cup. The Germans claimed that Cameroon deliberately lost 0:4 to Croatia so that they could profit from betting companies during the fixed match.
"FIFA has suspicions that the information provided is not accurate. Therefore, FIFA has contacted "Spiegel" so that this media outlet could prove its rather serious allegations. We carefully monitored 56 World Cup matches and events around them and did not notice any suspicious manipulations," - said FIFA Security Head Ralf Mucke.
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