July 21 – The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has reacted swiftly to accusations that money from Puma’s kit deal has not been accounted for through the federation’s accounts, saying that the reports are “maliciously false, calculated to cause damage to the reputation of the GFA and (GFA president) Mr Nyantakyi.”
According to reports on Ghanaian TV channel Atinka TV and the Sportsobama website, $1.1 million annually has not been accounted for, accusations the GFA fiercely refutes, saying that the money is present in all the GFA’s accounts which have been audited.
A copy of a leaked GFA document with Puma was produced on the ‘Sports Court Show’ that indicates the GFA receives €900,000 a year for the sponsorship of the national teams with the first annual payment being due June 30 of each year and the second payment due December 31. The allegations inferred that only Kwesi Nyantaki was involved in the signing of the contract.
Puma has been a sponsor of Ghana since 2005. The document revealed on the TV show covers the period January 1, 2015 through to December 31, 2018 and covers all Ghana’s national teams from its first team through to U21, Olympic and Futsal teams.
The GFA says that the document shown in the show was intact only a draft of the deal terms and not the final contract. It also maintains that the contract was negotiated with the full knowledge of the GFA board.
“The GFA’s contract with Puma is not the preserve of the President of the federation alone. The contract is thoroughly discussed by the Executive Committee with minutes of such meetings available,” said a GFA statement.
In terms of accounting for the money the GFA statement says: “The financial gains from our contract with Puma are paid directly into the accounts of the GFA and captured in our annual audited accounts. The audited accounts are also made available to our members at Congress.”
To further enforce the point, the GFA statement says: “All funds from Puma – and indeed all our sponsors – are received directly by the GFA through our accounts and properly accounted for as can be seen in our audited accounts by the Auditor General of the Ghana.”
The GFA is taking legal action against local media.
Contact the writer of this story at paul.nicholsom@insideworldfootball