There have been several events that have sparked controversy in the Ghanaian football cycles. They got the lovers of the game in Ghana talking.
The highlights of the controversies that surrounded the game of football in 2019 have been enumerated below
Kwesi Appiah’s decision to strip Asamoah Gyan of Black Stars captaincy
With few months to the start of 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) staged in Egypt, Black Stars coach James Kwesi Appiah stripped Asamoah Gyan of his captaincy and rather named his deputy Andre Ayew as the new leader of the team.
This sparked much controversy in the Ghanaian sporting arena. Reports even emerged that Gyan was stripped of his captaincy because a prophet predicted that Ghana would win the continent’s showpiece with Andre Ayew as the captain of the side instead of the former Sunderland striker.
Ironically, Kwesi Appiah also suffered a similar fate as the skipper of the Black Stars when he was replaced by Abedi Pele, the father of Andre Ayew in a similar bizarre manner ahead of the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations.
Asamoah Gyan retirement and U-turn
Asamoah Gyan after Kwesi Appiah announced his decision to replace him as the captain of the Black Stars recused himself from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and consequently announced his retirement from the national team.
Gyan after a day rescinded his decision to retire from international duties and stated that he couldn’t turn the President of the Republic of Ghana Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo down following an appeal from him to return to the team.
He was selected for the Africa Cup of Nations staged in Egypt.
Huge winning bonuses to each Black Stars player for just a win in the AFCON
Ghanaians have in the past been critical of the Black Stars for receiving huge winning bonuses to milk the nation at the expense of the tax-payer.
It became alarming after money was flown to Brazil to pay the Black Stars during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
The Black Stars were snubbed after the Mundial and several Ghanaians developed an apathy towards the senior national team.
Attempts have been made by governments to slash the winning bonus from $10,000 to $5,000, since the Brazil fiasco in order to win back the love for the national team.
The Minister for Youth & Sports Isaac Asiamah even boasted that he engineered the reduction of the Black Stars winning bonus to $ 5,000 in 2017 in just a year after taking office.
But two years on the Black Stars winning bonus was reinstated under his watch and Ghanaians upon hearing the news became upset especially with the new structure of receiving a qualification bonus instead of a winning bonus.
Black Stars despite just a win in the 2019 AFCON benefitted big time because of qualification bonus and this was revealed when Mr. Asiamah announced on the floor of parliament the amount that was spent on the team in Egypt.
Each Black Stars player received a whopping amount of $ 82,155 for winning just one game in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
The Black Stars despite their worst performance in 13 years benefited handsomely in terms of finances, taking home a staggering amount of $ 82,155
This amount was revealed by the Minister for Youth and Sports Isaac Asiamah when he addressed the Parliament of Ghana on Wednesday on the expenditure of the Black Stars during the 2019 continent’s showpiece.
He announced that the government spent a total of $924, 168.00 on per-diem and $965, 405 on winning bonus on the playing body, which is a total of $1,889,573.
When shared the $1,889,573 among the 23 players who represented Ghana in the 2019 AFCON, then it implies each player received $82,155.
The breakdown of the $82,155 is $40,181 on per-diem and 41,974 on winning bonus.
Currently, the Black Stars players are paid qualification bonus, instead of winning bonus, so the team was paid a qualification bonus for reaching the round of 16 and not a winning bonus for their victory over Guinea Bissau.
Normalization Committee’s President decision to pay $100,000 to Lawyer Frank Davies as a legal fee over the Glo $1m arbitration settlement to the GFA
Dr. Kofi Amoah, the ex-President of the former Normalisation Committee paid $100,000 legal fees to Frank Davies from an amount of $1000,000 paid by Globacom Ghana as arbitration settlement for the unilateral abrogation of a sponsorship contract with the Ghana Football Association (GFA).
The decision faced backlash from the public and Dr. Kofi Amoah was accused of corruption.
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) summoned Dr. Amoah and ordered him to return the $100,000 paid to Lawyer Frank Davies as legal charges.
Frank Davies esq. returned the amount to the GFA and the case died down.
Asante Kotoko’s forced CK Akonnor out despite winning the tier 1 of the normalization committee special cup
Asante Kotoko replaced CK Akonnor as the head coach of the team with Kjeti Zachariassen and instead elevated him to the position of a technical director- a decision which didn’t go down well with the former Ashanti Gold trainer because when coaches are made technical directors in Ghana, it is usually an attempt to sack them or force them out.
It generated much debate in the football cycles and a lot of people became critical of the Asante Kotoko management for taking such a decision against a coach who had won the Normalisation Committee Tier 1 Special Cup and also guided the Porcupine Warriors to reach the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup in the 2018-19 season- the first time in ten years since the team went that far.
CK Akonnor didn’t accept the technical director role and parted ways with Asante Kotoko,
He later took legal action against the Kumasi giants for a breach of contract and the Porcupine Warriors were asked to pay compensation to the former Back Stars captain.
Disqualification of Osei Kweku Palmer from the GFA presidential race
Bankroller of Tema Youth Football Club, Wilfred Osei Kwaku Palmer was disqualified from contesting the GFA presidential elections in October.
The vetting committee cited Osei Kwaku Palmer’s failure to pay a 10% of the transfer of his former player Joseph Paintsil to the Ghana Football Association as required by the regulation of the football governing body in addition to a comment he made on radio that the Black Stars failed to qualify for the 2019 FIFA World Cup because the GFA didn’t pay an unclassified payment as the reason for his disqualification.
An audio recording later emerged that Palmer’s disqualification was allegedly premeditated. On the recording, Dr. Kofi Amoah threatened to deal with Osei Palmer for failing to pay the 10% transfer fee of Paintsil to the GFA. It became the talking point in the football cycles for several days.
Osei Palmer sent the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), but the case was thrown out for having no merit.
