GHANA is a powerhouse when it comes to football. We may not have won the World Cup yet, but it does not write us off when it comes to football globally.
FOOTBALL powerhouses like England, France, Brazil, Argentina, Germany etc., give us lots of respect anytime they play against us. And it is not surprising at all to see Ghana perform creditably when it comes to the Coca-Cola FIFA World Rankings.
WE have produced football legends who include the likes of Abedi Ayew Pele, (The Maestro), Tony Yeboah (Ye goala), Tony Baffour, and more recently Osei Kuffuor, Stephen Appiah, Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari etc. These are Ghanaian football stars who have excelled in their various departments of the game. Today some of them are working with FIFA and CAF in various capacities.
WE also recall the exploits of the Black Stars during the South Africa 2010 World Cup, following which Ghana improved upon its FIFA World Ranking. It was that same World Cup tourney that our Black Stars but for the ‘evil hand’ of Uruguan, Luiz Suarez, would have seen Ghana as the first Africa nation to reach the semis of a World Cup tournament. And who knows we could have gone ahead to win the trophy for the country and the entire African continent.
THUS it is obvious from the above that football is the passion and will continue to remain dear to many hearts in Ghana. Unfortunately and in recent times, many Ghanaian football fans have lost affection for our senior national team. It does not surprise us at all that many of the matches played by the Black Stars recently in the country have been patronised by only a few Ghanaians.
TO many of us the reason for this loss of affection is not far-fetched. The cause of it is the FIFA 2010 World Cup hosted by Brazil which event saw some of our players on the team exhibit gross and open disrespect to authority.
FOLLOWING that unfortunate incident many of us thought players of our senior national team would take a cue from it and patch up by way of courting back the support of Ghanaians. But it appears some players have not woken up from that shameful incident.
ONE Black Stars player who is currently in the news is the current goalie—Razak Brimah—who is in post for the Stars in the ongoing Afcon in Gabon. Reports indicate that Razak Brimah took to social media (specifically on YouTube) and posted a video of himself raining very nasty comments about the same people whose tax payers’ monies are used to pay him.
IN fact watching the video on YouTube one could easily draw the conclusion that something might be wrong with our goalkeeper. And to paraphrase famous Ghanaian actor, Kwadwo Nkansah’s (aka Lil Wayne’s) expression: Today cannot think far about exactly Braimah’s point.
IS our goalkeeper telling us that he is above reproach, and that we cannot criticise him? Then we advise him to go and play for a country that will tolerate his insults! But for us we will have none of those, particularly when he is aware that the 1000s of US dollars that are given him match-after-match are paid by the ordinary Ghanaian in this country.
IT is refreshing that he has recognised his mistake and has apologised. However, we believe that the matter must not just end there. Sanctions must be applied! Elsewhere Razak Brimah would have been expelled from the team.
RAZAK must understand that we can only win trophies when we have a disciplined team. Anything short of that will not see us achieve laurels. For now he may be spared but we strongly recommend that he is appropriately punished immediately after the tournament.
THAT notwithstanding we seize this opportunity to wish the Black Stars the best of luck in our match against Cameroon. Go Stars and make us proud!
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