Executive Committee member of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Wilfred Osei Palmer, has claimed that the famous investigative documentary by Tiger Eye PI failed to meet a test of scrutiny at FIFA and has therefore not been accepted by the world football governing body.
The owner of Tema Youth Sports Club in an interview with Kumasi based radio FOX 97.9 FM indicated that FIFA provisionally suspended the then GFA president Kwasi Nyantakyi based on the BBC’S documentary dubbed ” Betraying the Game”, a video in which Nyantakyi was seen accepting cash from a team of undercover reporters purported to be a gift, in violation of FIFA’S regulations.
According to Palmer, Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ Tiger Eye PI documentary dubbed “Number 12; When Greed and Corruption Become the Norm”, which sought to highlight alleged level of corruption in football in Ghana, is different from what the BBC aired, and FIFA solely recognises that of the latter based on its professional line.
“Before a video will be accepted at FIFA it has to go through authentication processes, we have authentication, validation and compliance and must be profiled, which means they (at FIFA) haven’t accepted Anas’ documentary”, Palmer told FOX FM.
He further stated that the BBC’S work from their premiered documentary differs from that of Anas, and that they did a professional job by having that of Anas censored (altered).
“BBC in terms of their documentary, it is different from that of Anas, I watched it and the professional context is very important to me. Do you know the BBC censored the video brought by Anas? In their documentary, they as professionals added what is called their valid judgement and opinion on the documentary, which means if really this will be accepted as a ” gift” within the FIFA regulations then that is up to the FIFA adjudicatory body to deal with “, Palmer stated.
It must however be noted, for reference purposes, that the said documentary was a sole investigative work by Ghana’s undercover journalist and his investigative firm Tiger Eye PI with technical support from the BBC.
The British broadcasting giants secured the right to broadcast it to the global audience.
While there are secondary variations in packaging between that aired by Anas and that of the BBC, the primary content was the same despite titling difference.
