Kwesi Nyantakyi


Kwesi Nyantakyi is a Ghanaian banker and a lawyer, controlist and former football administrator. He was the president of the Ghana Football Association from 30 December 2005 until 7 June 2018. Nyantakyi officially resigned a day later. However, four hours to the release of his resignation letter FIFA had issued a statement announcing his ban from all football related activities for a period of 90 days pending investigations. Circumstances surrounding his resignation include a video released by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas in which Nyantakyi was found taking a bribe and purporting to have the ability to "take over the whole country". In an interview with Super Sports South Africa a few days after the video of the investigation was slated to go public, Nyantakyi denied any wrongdoing regarding match fixing. On 30 October 2018 FIFA officially issued a statement that officially bans Kwesi Nantakyi from football related activities for life.

Early life

Born to a Waala mother, and an Akan father from Kwaso in the Ashanti Region, Nyantakyi grew up in Wa where he had his early education.
A practicing Muslim, Nyantakyi was born Christian but reverted to Islam from the age of 47, after his mother remarried a Muslim man years back in the seventies. Nyantakyi has a wife, Christine-Marie Nyantakyi. He has two children with his wife Christine.

President of GFA

Nyantakyi became the president of the Ghana Football Association on 30 December 2005. Nyantakyi defeated two other candidates, Ade Coker and Kojo Bonsu. Under his presidency, Ghana qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the first for the country. Ghana again qualified for the subsequent 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The Ghana U-20 football team also won Africa's first and only U-20 World Cup also during his stewardship in 2009. He has currently resigned from this position.

President of WAFU

In 2011, when West African Football Union president, Amos Adamu, was suspended by FIFA, Kwesi Nyantakyi was given the nod to be the interim president of WAFU until elections were conducted. When the union conducted its elections on 31 May 2011, Mr. Nyantakyi was elected president for a two-year term. He stood unopposed in the November 2013 elections and was re-appointed for another two-year term as president. Nyantakyi resigned as WAFU president on the 11th of June 2018.

International Football Appointments

Nyantakyi has held several international positions in football. His appointments cut across sub regional, regional and international levels including:
Nyantakyi has endeared himself very much to most Ghanaians due to several achievements as a football administrator. In 2012, he was named the thirty-second most influential Ghanaian.

Controversies

An undercover investigation led by The Telegraph and Channel 4 accused Nyantakyi and other officials of the Ghana Football Association of match-fixing.
According to this investigation, the accusations 'involved just international friendlies; World Cup matches would not be affected by the suspicions' Nyantakyi denied the match fixing allegations by saying that "the report of the newspaper or the media house is entirely not accurate" because "there is really no cause for alarm as far as I am concerned because nothing untoward has happened involving me or the Federation."
In May 2018, the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo ordered the arrest of Nyantakyi following an exposé by Ghanaian investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas in which Nyantakyi was apparently engaged in some fraudulent activity using the name of the President. Deputy Chief of Staff, Samuel Abu Jinapor in an interview with Dan Kweku Yeboah on Peace FM confirmed the president's order for Nyantakyi's arrest, indicating that the GFA President engaged in influence peddling using the name of the president. "The footage indicated that Kwesi Nyantakyi used the name of the President to defraud some people; constituting defrauding by false pretenses..." Jinapor indicated.
According to Jinapor, after the President finished watching the video he could not help but direct the Criminal Investigative Department of the Ghana Police Service to issue an arrest warrant for Kwesi Nyantakyi." He ordered the CID to arrest him to assist in investigations and then the next step will be taken. The president is the custodian of the law and he’s not biased. No matter who you are, once you are wrong, he will hand you over to the law. He has demonstrated that his determination to fight corruption and crime is unquestionable" Jinapor noted. He was asked if the President was on the right course since the GFA is deemed autonomous. In response he said: "GFA is not an island when it comes to the criminal laws of Ghana and so an action can be taken and that is what has been done. Nobody will be allowed to go scot free if found guilty."
The allegations and controversies also led to Nyantakyi's resignation on June 8, 2018 as the president of the Ghana Football Association. The unfortunate incident was reported after an Executive Committee meeting of the Ghana Football Association. The resignation is believed to have resulted from a provisional ban placed on Nyantakyi for a period of 90 days by the chairperson of the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee of FIFA. The ban is expected to restrict Nyantakyi's involvement in any football activities at both national and international levels.

Top 5 scandals of Kwesi Nyantakyi as GFA president

Allegations of match-fixing
In 2014, British newspaper, The Telegraph and Channel 4 did an investigation where the Telegraph’s reporters posed as match fixers and engaged Nyantakyi about the possibility of organising friendlies and influencing referees to determine the outcome of those games.The case ended up at FIFA, Nyantakyi was later cleared of any wrong doing by the Ethics Committee.
Co-efficient payments
The “co-efficient theory” became popular among Ghanaians following Nyantakyi's appearance before the 2014 Commission of Inquiry. The GFA boss alluded to the fact that he shared an amount of $557,000 among seven management committee members of the GFA which included his former vice, Jordan Anagblah, who was deceased even before the World Cup in Brazil started. Nyantakyi later said he calculated the shared amount using the co-efficient of seven.
Double friendly payments scandal
The Dzamefe Commission also uncovered that the GFA, led by Nyantakyi, took double payments in organizing preparation matches ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The association took money from government to organize friendlies for the Black Stars, before again turning back to take another money from sponsors GNPC for the same purpose. The Commission, therefore, ordered him to refund a sum of $1 million to the state following the revelations.
Mid Sea brouhaha
Another big controversy of Kwesi Nyantakyi's tenure as GFA boss was his handling of the Glo sponsorship deal which signed a $15million deal with the GFA to sponsor that Ghana Premier League, but not without a third party payment. Mid sea, the brokers of the deal, stood to gain 15% of the total amount, however, it was later found that the agency could not be traced, leaving many to wonder who the 15% payment had been made to. The Economic and Organised Crime Office took up the matter, but could not prosecute anyone despite storming the offices of the GFA.
Inconsistencies in GNPC deal
Again, following the signing of a sponsorship between the Black Stars and state-owned GNPC, the GFA listed West Head as the company that brokered the deal. However, it was later revealed that then GNPC boss Ato Ahwoi that no third party was involved in the deal, exposing the FA in the process.