How A Minister Under Rawlings Instructed Us To ‘Rob’ Kotoko’ – Retired Referee

Ghanaian referee Emmanuel Okoampah, who is now retired, has talked about how a man who worked for Jerry John Rawlings tried to fix games in favor of Hearts of Oak.

The former CAF and FIFA referee told a story about a Minister who came up to him before a President's Cup game between Hearts and Asante Kotoko, two teams that hated each other very much.

He shocked everyone by saying that the Minister had told him and his helpers to make sure Hearts won the game.

He said that he couldn't do that because it was against his morals, so he told his coworkers to run the game fairly.

Okoampah wouldn't say who the Minister was, but he was quick to say that it wasn't ET Mensah, who was the Sports Minister when Rawlings was in power.

“I handled a game between them (Hearts) and Kotoko and they won. Two weeks after I was assigned to a game between them and Kotoko again. It was an anniversary cup. We were in the dressing room when a minister came. It wasn’t ET Mensah,” the retired referee told Dan Kwaku Yeboah on YouTube.

“He told us that the cup must stay in Accra which means Hearts had to win. We responded in the affirmative but once he left I told the linesmen that our reputation was at stake and that we should handle the game without any bias.”

He added: “I told them to be fair but they were tensed. In the first half, the Hearts players were falling apart looking for a penalty but I ignored them.

"After the first half break, the man (Minister) came into the dressing room protesting that some big men were not happy with our decisions. He was a minister under Rawlings but I won't mention his name.”