FIFA to fine Ghana
Football’s world governing body FIFA will fine Ghana for the floodlights failure that held up Friday’s World Cup qualifier against Lesotho.
The Group D game in Kumasi was delayed for nearly one hour after the floodlights went off in the second half of the game.
The Black Stars were leading 4-0 when the lights went off prompting referee Badara Sene of Senegal to halt the game.
It took nearly one hour for electricity officials to restore power to the lights but Ghana FA boss Kwesi Nyantakyi admits that the embarrassment will not go unpunished by Fifa.
“We will be fined by FIFA, who will accuse us of poor planning for the match because contingency plans should have been put in place,” Nyantakyi said.
“It caused an undue delay in the match by over an hour and it was an embarrassment not only to us but to FIFA. They will fine us.”
The Black Stars went on to win the game 7-0 but the incident overshadowed the side’s emphatic victory over the Crocodiles.
The Ghana government will set up an investigation to find out what went wrong.