Inter Allies Admits Match-Fixing Scandal, Blames GFA for Unfair Judgment
Inter Allies Football Club, Ghana’s 2014 FA Cup finalists, has officially admitted that its players were involved in the match-fixing scandal that marred the 2020/21 Ghana Premier League season. The incident, which led to the club’s relegation to Division Two by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) in July 2021, occurred during their final game against AshantiGold SC—widely believed to have been manipulated for betting gains.
Speaking in an interview on Prime Take with Muftawu Nabila Abdulai, Technical Director Willie Klutse confirmed the players’ involvement and expressed disappointment in their actions. “I was disappointed in that group of players. They used their future to gamble,” Klutse stated. He revealed that players confessed to betting on the game, and even implicated the team manager. This admission led the club to dismiss the entire squad.
Klutse emphasized that the club’s management had no part in the scandal and had reported the matter to both the police and the GFA. However, the police redirected the issue to the GFA since the incident had already received national attention. Inter Allies submitted a full report with evidence to the GFA, hoping for a fair investigation.
Despite their cooperation, Klutse believes the GFA handled the matter poorly and punished the club unfairly. He criticized the GFA’s stance that the players’ actions reflected on the club. Drawing an analogy, he argued, “If someone commits a crime, you don’t punish their entire family. We brought the culprits forward and yet got penalized as an institution.”
Klutse was especially critical of the GFA’s disciplinary judgment, asserting that the administrators had no role in the wrongdoing and had done their best to assist the authorities. He added that even though the club offered financial incentives—GHC 1,000 per win—to motivate players during the relegation battle, the allure of betting money proved stronger. “The betting gave them more than our offer, so they chose that path,” he lamented.
He concluded by reiterating that Inter Allies was punished for trying to uphold integrity in football, and maintained that the GFA failed to distinguish between the wrongdoing of individuals and the role of the club itself.
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