GFA Responds to South Africa's Claims: "Google the distance from Accra to Cape Coast"

GFA Responds to South Africa's Claims: "Google the distance from Accra to Cape Coast"

Emmanuel Kwame Donkor
updated at April 12, 2023 at 7:53 PM
  • The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has said the match-fixing allegations levelled against it by South Africa have led to violence
  • The GFA added that South Africa's allegations have been shocking, irresponsible, and disrespectful
  • The West African football association labelled South Africa's actions as "spreading falsehood to the media"

Ghana Football Association (GFA) has urged South Africa to google the distance from Accra to Cape Coast, in response to the allegations of match-fixing made by the South Africans.

The South Africans presenting as part of their case of improprieties by the GFA, disclosed that their journey from the airport to the stadium for the 2022 World qualifier, took 9 hours.

Logos of the football associations of Ghana and South Africa. Source: Twitter/@ghanafaofficial/@SAFA_net
Logos of the football associations of Ghana and South Africa. Source: Twitter/@ghanafaofficial/@SAFA_net
Source: Twitter

"The total driving time is just over two (2) hours and not 7 or 9 hours. Kindly note that the South African Team was led to Cape Coast by Police escort and motorcade. In fact, the South African team got to Cape Coast before the Black Stars got to Cape Coast.
" We urge every South African and all well-meaning football followers to google the distance from Accra to Cape Coast", the GFA statement read.

Further debunking the claim of delays and stressful journeying to the stadium, the GFA in a press statement dated November 18, responding to the allegations noted:

''In fact, FIFA and its regulations does not allow any team to travel on road for six (6) hours or nine (9) hours within a country. One may ask, why didn’t the SAFA report this to FIFA or CAF. (The FIFA standard is 200 km warrant a flight).''

''The truth is that the distance from Accra to Cape Coast is only 79 miles (127 km). Unfortunately for our colleagues, Cape Coast is a tourist’s city and many people across the world have been to Cape Coast and would be shocked to hear such a blatant lie from no less a Football Association than the SAFA.
''Our colleagues forgot that we defeated them 2-0 in Cape Coast in November 2019 in a Cup of Nations qualifier".

The Ghanaian FA, added that South Africa's actions have been irresponsible and shocking.

It said their counterpart's reaction to the 1:0 defeat in the 2022 World Cup qualifier fixture between the two have led to violence.

''Even though we believe that it is within the South African Football Association’s right to call for investigation, if they feel that certain factors contributed to their loss, we wish to state that the way and manner lies, and allegations have been thrown into the public space has been very irresponsible leading to injury and violence.''

Ghanaian man stabbed over South Africa Game

YEN.com.gh reported earlier that a Ghanaian man has reportedly been stabbed to death in South Africa after an argument that ensued following the Black Stars' victory over the Bafana Bafana.

The Ghanaian, named Yaw Owusu, is reported to have been killed by his apprentice after arguing over the penalty awarded the Black Stars.

South Africa FA President piles on the accusations

Earlier YEN.com.gh reported that South Africa Football Association President, Danny Jordaan, has said that Ghana did all they can to beat the Bafana Bafana to cover up their socio-economic problems.

According to Mr Jordan, there would have been serious economic implications for the West African nation if Ghana had lost.

Ghanaians reacted to the allegations

Ghanaian Twitter users have reacted to news of South Africa's allegation of match-fixing levelled against Ghana for the world cup qualifier between the two countries.

The reactions garnered by the allegation, as sighted by YEN.com.gh, mainly ridiculed the claims, downplaying almost all of the claims made by South Africa.

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Emmanuel Kwame Donkor photo
Emmanuel Kwame Donkor
Ghana Sports Editor
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Ghana