Editorial: Without prejudice: Enough of the Gyans!
The excesses of Ghana football’s Gyans, Baffour and Asamoah, must have spilled over last Friday with the reported physical assault on sportswriter Dan Kenu of the Graphic stable, leading to the arrest of the senior Gyan and one of their assigns, Samuel Anim Addo.
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The machomen assigns, believed to be about six and responsible for putting the ‘fear of God’ into Kenu for daring to ask Asamoah Gyan earlier at a Black Stars’ press conference to clear the air on the whereabouts of his singing partner, Castro, are reportedly on the run.
However, they can run but cannot hide, as we expect the prosecuting agencies to catch up with them to appear in court on Friday.
It is unfortunate that the Gyans, by their own actions and inaction, are gradually eroding their appeal among Ghanaian soccer fans, as allegations continue to be made against them for doing things rather untoward and for which they had previously got away with.
But this time around, they must have bitten more than they could chew. As usual, we are told, they had expected this assault case to be dropped by the police, while they prepared themselves to meet the victim and the Graphic authorities for settlement.
However, their pranks fell through and it is the reason they are facing prosecution. After all, they are not above the laws of the land, apart from the fact that they must have failed to judge the mood of the times.
Having hurt the emotions of Ghanaians by the embarrassing display of the Asamoah Gyan-led Stars at the Brazil 2014 World Cup, it was least expected that the Stars’ captain would fail to capitalise on the press conference to win back the angry fans to himself and the entire team, for that matter.
On this particular occasion, we think the Stars’ management was also not smart enough to anticipate a question such as the one asked by our colleague to have prepared and rehearsed an answer that could have sent the entire nation into tears, instead of the retort: “Don’t answer this question”, by the FA president.
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Take it or leave it, it was that kind of response which might have emboldened Baffour and his assigns into their machismo.
Indeed, the result was that they destroyed all the PR effort by no less a person than the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, himself, who had earlier appealed to his subjects and the entire nation, for that matter, to forgive the Brazil trespasses of the Stars and turn out to support them against The Cranes of Uganda.
It was an appeal that went down well, as the Asantehene also admonished the players to be ever ready to serve their nation at whatever cost.
We can only thank Otumfuo for that intervention which helped greatly in averting the planned boycott of the match by the fans, some of whom also asked to be paid appearance fees to ‘appear’ at the stadium and cheer the Stars, just like the colossal appearance fees the players often demand before they feature for the nation.
Today, the Stars are in Lome for the second match of the AFCON 2015 group qualifiers, but it appears heart-broken fans don’t even want to know about that. The usual drive and buzz in fan mobilisation for organised support appears lukewarm and this is a dangerous indication that the national spirit is deserting the team.
It is time the players realised this!
On a lighter note, what is happening at the ongoing Presidential Commission of Inquiry that highly placed officials go there and shed tears?
If we should ask, without risking being summoned for contempt: Do the commissioners sit there armed with tear gas which they release in the direction of witnesses in the course of proceedings?