When the Disciplinary Committee(DC) announced the verdict for the Ashanti Gold-Inter Allies match-fixing scandal, one official who was deeply involved in the scheme was handed a life time ban from football. That man is by name Emmanuel Nii Amoah.
Per the verdict, Nii Amoah played the role of Inter Allies representative, plotting a fixed scoreline together with top officials of Ashgold.
But who is Emmanuel Nii Amoah?
Emmanuel Nii Amoah is not a household name in terms of football administration in Ghana because he was at the base of the ladder before his ban.
He is said to be a Ghanaian football administrator who works at the regional level.
He is deeply involved in match coordination like setting up groups for games or liaising with match commissioners to ensure that everything is in place for the game to be played.
Inter Allies' lawyer, Felix Osei, in an interview on GhanaWeb TV’s Sports Check stated that Nii Amoah served as logistics manager at the club during the 2014/2015 season.
But he resigned from his role at the end of the season to be enstooled as a chief.
How Inter Allies fished out Nii Amoah
Osei explains that Nii Amoah’s name was brought up during Inter Allies’ internal investigation of the issue.
The management got to know Nii Amoah travelled with the club for the game, slept at the team’s hotel, and turned up in pre-match, all to satisfy his personal agenda.
According to Osei, Allies informed the GFA about Nii Amoah and the body did further investigations to discover Amoah’s role played in the match-fixing scheme.
What was Nii Amoah’s role
The Disciplinary Committee stated that Nii Amoah conspired with Ashgold’s bankroller, Dr. Kwaku Frimpong, to arrange the scoreline, earning GH¢10,000 in the process.
"Prosecution showed that on July 12, 2021, around 4:57 p.m., Dr. Kwaku Frimpong called Emmanuel Nii Amoah and expressed his interest in the match in question. Dr. Kwaku Frimpong then offered an amount of GH¢10,000 and indicated that he would instruct someone (who was later found out to be Emmanuel Frimpong, the CEO of Ashantigold) to send the money. There on, Emmanuel Nii Amoah frequently contacted Dr. Kwaku Frimpong to obtain more information on the details of Dr. Kwaku Frimpong's interest in manipulating the match," parts of the verdict read.
"Following the agreement, Kwaku Frimpong and his son, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Ashanti Gold made a number of mobile money transactions to Nii Amoah to facilitate the fixing of the game.
The DC established transactions made in the match-fixing process.
"Prosecution revealed that on Thursday, 15th July, around 10:00 a.m., Isaac Quist, Mobile Money Agent, received an amount of GH¢10,000 which was sent in two batches of GH¢5000 within a minute from Prince Kwarteng also believed to be a mobile money agent. Emmanuel Frimpong then called Nii Amoah around 10:23 a.m. to confirm receipt of the money."
Fortunately or unfortunately, the 5-0 fixed scoreline did not go as planned as Inter Allies defender Hashmin Musah scored two own goals to ruin the plan.
According to Musah, he did this after learning the match had been fixed.
The DC in their verdict described Emmanuel Nii Armah as an Inter Allies volunteer.
Watch Inter Allies' lawyer Felix Osei narrate how Emmanuel Nii Amoah was caught up in the club’s investigation from minutes 2
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