GFA bans Unity FC president

The GFA Ethics Committee has decided to ban the President of Unity FC Richmond Osei from taking part in all football-related activity for a period of five months.

At its meeting held on November 19, the Committee found Mr. Richmond Osei guilty of having breached Article 20 of the GFA Code of Ethics (Offering and accepting gifts or other benefits) and Article 18 (Duty to Cooperate) of the GFA Code of Ethics (2019).

The Committee received a report from the GFA Integrity Officer which accused Mr. Osei of offering an amount of GHc1500 to Match Officials for his team’s 2019/20 Division One League match against Wa Suntaa.

After investigations, the Committee found that Mr. Richmond Osei met with the Assistant Referee for the match through Referee Daniel Kwame Nsiah who acted as an intermediary.

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Mr. Osei was found to have handed Daniel Kwame Nsiah the sum of GHc1500 with the intention that Daniel Kwame Nsiah would convince the Referees involved in the match to give favourable officiating for his team, Unity FC.

The Committee found that when the said Referees were informed by Daniel Kwame Nsiah of the money and intention behind the gesture of Mr. Osei, the Referees rejected the gesture and told Nsiah to return the money on the basis that they were not interested in Mr. Osei’s request for his team to be given favourable officiating in the match.

When invited to appear before the Committee, Mr Osei had on separate occasions failed to do so on the grounds of ill health. Later, in a virtual appearance before the Ethics Committee, Mr. Osei denied ever calling Referee Daniel Kwame Nsiah.

In addition, Mr. Osei stated emphatically that he had no relationship whatsoever with Daniel Kwame Nsiah, Evidence adduced by the Committee via the phone call records of Daniel Kwame Nsiah, however revealed that he, Daniel Kwame Nsiah and Richmond Osei had exchanged telephone calls a total of 30 times between February 1-29 contrary to Mr. Osei’s claims.

Following these findings, Mr. Osei once again failed to make himself available when invited by the Committee to attend a final hearing in person.

On the basis of its investigations, the Committee found Mr. Richmond Osei guilty of breaching Article 20 which imposes a fine of GHC5,000, as well as a ban on taking part in any football-related activity for a maximum of two years.

For not cooperating with the Committee and being dishonest to the Committee, members found Mr. Richmond Osei to have breached Article 18 of the GFA Code of Ethics which imposes a fine of GHc5000 payable to the GFA within 14 days of receipt of this decision.

COMMITTEE’S DECISION

The decision of the Committee is:

1. To ban Mr. Richmond Osei from taking part in any football-related activity for a period of five months with immediate effect in accordance with Article 7(j) of the GFA Code of Ethics.

2. Mr. Richmond Osei is to pay a fine of GHc5000 in accordance with Article 20 of the GFA Code of Ethics

3. For breaching Article 18 of the Code of Ethics, Mr. Richmond Osei is also fined an amount of GHc5000.

4. All fines shall be paid to the GFA within 14 days after receipt of this Decision.

Should Mr. Richmond Osei be dissatisfied with or aggrieved by this Decision, he has within One (1) day of being notified of the grounds of the decision.