A former Ghanaian referee Emmanuel Okoampah has opened a can of worms about how a former Minister of state under erstwhile President Jerry John Rawlings's regime instructed him to officiate a cup game in favour of Hearts of Oak.

He shockingly revealed in an interview that the said minister met him and his assistant referees before the game and told them to do all within their power o ensure that Hearts of Oak wins the Cup game.

The former CAF/ FIFA referee disclosed that it was a President's Cup game but since it did not sit well with him he told his assistants that they should be fair so that the better team on the day wins.

He failed to mention the name of the said minister but quickly added that it was not E.T. Mensah who served as a Sports Minister for a long time under the late Jerry Rawlings.

“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.”


Hearts had their glory days in the late 90s to early 2000s when they won multiple domestic titles, the elusive CAF Champions League trophy, CAF Confederations Cup among others.

VIDEO BELOW: