Braziiiiil! Here we come. . .Our preparations! Shambolic!
At the countdown to the start of the World Cup, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, created his own slogan – Everybody say, Brazil here we come! Black Stars, we go do! With this, he met schoolchildren and other football fans whom he led in shouting this slogan.
Advertisement
One, therefore, thought that with his enthusiastic mood and with experiences from previous tournaments Ghana had participated in, particularly the 2006 and 2010 World Cup tournaments, as well as the recent African Cup tournaments, he and his ministry and the Ghana Football Association (GFA) executive had done all the necessary preparations.
The country and its people, as usual, were in the football mood hoping that, based on the previous feat achieved by the Black Stars in the last two World Cups, the team was going in for another enviable achievement.
Then came the infantile statement by Afriyie Ankrah’s Deputy, Joseph Yamin, who was proud to announce to the world that the majority of the supporters the government was sending to Brazil to cheer the players up were National Democratic Congress (NDC) members. This angered many Ghanaians, whose desires and wishes of what the Black Stars can achieve changed. Spending huge sums of money to send supporters to Brazil when we still don’t have electricity and water is a topic for another discussion.
The issue of bonus payments has in many previous tournaments become a problem. With this in mind, some of us thought that as Afriyie Ankrah started going round shouting “Brazil, here we come”, he had done his homework well.
The team had a trial match in Holland after which it had another one in Miami, United States, before it finally arrived in Brazil. It played its first match with the US but lost. It was after that match that issues started coming out, the predominant one being the non-payment of appearance fees to the players, and how much was agreed. As at that stage, there had not been any agreement between the players and the officials as to how much was to be paid.
The players, we are told, demanded $100,000, while officials were proposing $75,000. The players were insistent on taking $100,000 and not $75,000. The question is, why did the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the GFA fail to conclude agreement on this payment before the team left Ghana.
What kind of preparations were therefore, made before the team left the shores of Ghana which had to necessitate the carrying of $3 million cash from Ghana to Brazil at a time when the government’s own policy is for people not to withdraw more than $10,000 from their account. There is something called ‘leadership by example’, so when the government wants people not to withdraw more than $10,000 from their accounts and the government itself can withdraw and carry $3 million cash and carry it across nations, then there is something seriously wrong with our leadership.
Other Trending Stories
The non-payment of appearance fees and others dragged on until the players revolted in demand of payment. This necessitated, according to Yamin, the President directing that $3 million be sent to Brazil to pay the players.
Just before the Black Stars last group stage match with Portugal, it was announced that Sulley Muntari and Kevin Prince Boateng had been suspended from the team for indiscipline because they confronted team officials. We need to condemn all sorts of indiscipline in our society.
However, we need to understand that respect is earned and it is reciprocal. The fact that the players had to persist before what was due them was paid amounted to some sort of indiscipline on the part of the large team of officials with the Black Stars. Again, for the players to demand payment in cash also showed the mistrust between them and the officials. If you promise a child and you fail to deliver, they rebel in one way or other – that is natural justice.
Nobody has explained to Ghanaians what the two players did before they were suspended apart from simply saying they were indisciplined. But, one thing that must be made clear is that footballers do not play for charity. Afriyie Ankrah and his deputy Yamin chose to be politicians and we as a nation remunerate them appropriately, with all the numerous allowances due them paid. Equally, other politicians who are in Parliament are treated the same to the extent that sometimes they even call for pay increase.
It is, therefore, wrong for anyone to loudly shout and condemn players of our national teams when they demand what is due them. Playing football is their profession and they must be paid for that according to the rules.
We never talk of nationalism and patriotism when Members of Parliament demand pay increase, when the President and his ministers are given pay increase, when judges and other public and civil servants are given pay increase. Why, therefore, do we start talking about patriotism when it comes to professional footballers?
I was shocked to hear Mr Joseph Ade Coker, the Greater Accra regional chairman of the NDC, on radio condemning the players for not being patriotic. Ade Coker has been the Chairman of Accra Great Olympics for years; has also been GFA Vice Chairman for some time and is now NDC Regional Chairman. Has he not been taking all allowances and payments due him as football administrator and politician? Where was patriotism?
It is very strange for a football administrator who has enjoyed all the benefits from football to start attacking players who are merely demanding their unpaid allowances. Let us not forget that World Cup appearance fees are paid by FIFA, so there is nothing wrong when players demand their fair share. Interestingly, the same GFA officials who sit on radio and condemn players also benefit from any such payments made to the players. So whom are they fooling?
Afriyie Ankrah, Yamin, GFA Chairman, Kwesi Nyantakyi, and their numerous officials who have been with the Black Stars team all this while should have first suspended themselves from their post for failing to perform their official roles. Do we need the President to direct before players are paid what is genuinely due them?
My confirmed information is that Afriyie Ankrah physically fought with some Ghanaian supporters after the Ghana-US match when he failed to provide a bus to convey them to their base which was an hour’s drive and told them to walk there. His 11-year-old son whom he carried along and was said to have used an ‘f’ word on the supporters was punched by one supporter. Is this not indiscipline for which the minister must be punished?
Without any shame, Nyantakyi was rather blaming the players instead of blaming himself for not being able to perform his duties. It’s a shame we have people like this in charge of national assets.
The Black Stars’ poor performance in Brazil must be put squarely at the doorsteps of Afriyie Ankrah, Yamin, Nyantakyi and the team officials and not on players.
Advertisement
PS: Mr Inspector-General of Police, having openly accepted that the Police Service had done some wrong in recent past, would you please respond to the children and widow of Adjei Akpor, the 22-year-old man your men killed at Adenta on January 6, 2014, and give them justice? This is the 24th week since the man was killed. Can any human rights lawyers come to my aid in fighting this case for the defenceless family?
The author is a Journalist and Political Scientist. He is the Head of the Department of Media and Communication Studies, Pentecost University College, Accra. - fasado@hotmail.com