THE WORLD CUP PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION'S REPORT – WHAT ARE THE
The Justice Dzamefe Commission which was set up to investigate and expose the
facts and causes of the abysmal performance of the Black Stars in Brazil and make
appropriate recommendations has finished its work. According to the Commission,
they are waiting for clearance from the Presidency to present their report. While
Ghanaians wait for the report to be presented, a lot of concerns have been raised as
to what the focus of the report will be and its subsequent recommendations. In an
interview with football enthusiasts, sports journalists and observers of the
Commission's proceedings, some serious concerns were raised with regards to the
contents of the yet to be presented report, which this writer intends to share with
readers.
Will the report focus on the issue of supporters' welfare, which is important but a
peripheral matter anyway? "I don't expect the Commission to focus too much on the
supporters but the truth about what happened to them must be told. I was in Brazil
and I saw the decent accommodation facilities in which the supporters were hosted,
this reality must be highlighted in the report in order to dispel the false stories about
the facilities at the camp", a sports journalist told this writer.
Another concern raised is the issue of the conduct of the various committees set up
by the Ministry of Youth and Sports to help organize the World Cup. Will the
Commission heavily rely on the little flaws that occurred through no fault the
committee members? Unlike 2006 and 2010, there was no seed money for the 2014
World Cup preparation. The committee worked tirelessly and sometimes without
remuneration. Will the Commission's report recognize the significant role played by
the committee to raise funds to send supporters to Brazil or focus on the few
problems which occurred through no fault of theirs?
What will the Commission’s report say about the case of accountability by the GFA
officials? A seasoned sports journalist asked, "what will the Commission say about
the testimony of the GFA President in which he admitted that he received and
disbursed over USD$ 500,000 through a certain coefficient formula without any of
the beneficiaries signing for what they received"? We live to see.
A lot of Ghanaians are of the hope that the Commission's report will tackle the
causes of the embarrassment in Brazil from its deepest root. But the question on the
minds of a lot of Ghanaians, is what actually accounted for the humiliation that the
team suffered at the Brazil World Cup in 2014? I will address that question with solid,
verifiable and concrete facts.
A lot of literature and commentary have been made by Ghanaians and non-
Ghanaians about the actual cause(s) of the poor performance of the senior national
team, the Black Stars in the 2014 World Cup. While some have heaped blame on the
Sports Ministry, others have castigated the Ghana Football Association (GFA). The
players have also had a fair share of the blame. Most of these comments have been
made either maliciously or without looking holistically at the chain of events that led
to our early exit from the tournament. We owe our nation a duty to sieve through
the tons of information we were fed from Brazil by different reporters, pundits and
journalists from several angles with varied interests. Some of the reports were
outright lies whiles others were heavily twisted. The true picture has to be painted
not for the benefit of any individual, but to guide us in future.
One can easily recall that the biggest threat and potential scandal in the World Cup
was the apparent threat by the Black Star players not to train for and play the last
group match against Portugal until their appearance fees were paid in cash. This
whole appearance fee saga started right here from Ghana. The sequence of events
pointed to a potential impasse but all the warning signs were ignored by those who
control the nation's purse. The facts of the matter are as follows:
1. The Ministry of Youth and Sports together with the GFA presented a budget of
$100,000 as the players' appearance fees to Cabinet. After several deliberations,
Cabinet approved $82,500. This figure was subsequently communicated to the
playing body in Serbia and Montenegro by two presidential staffers. The players
totally rejected the Cabinet figure and insisted on taking $100,000. The meeting
ended in a deadlock. When the team went to the United States of America, the issue
was further discussed and the team stuck to their initial demand. The appearance fee
matter remained unresolved and inconclusive until the team flew to Brazil and the
tournament started.
2. After the first group game with the United States, there were increasing
agitations from the team for their appearance fees to be paid. Their earlier demand
for $100,000 had not changed. The Sports Minister did not have the powers to
change a Cabinet decision so those who blamed him were making a flawed
argument. However, the Vice President of the Republic, who occupies a
superior office with a higher authority, intervened and approved the $100,000 for
the players. He announced the decision to the team during one of their training
sessions.
3. The initial arrangement was for UniBank to transfer the money unto the
international Visa cards of the players. By the time our second impressive group
match with Germany was over, the money had still not been paid despite numerous
assurances from government. The players now got suspicious of officialdom and
demanded to be paid in cash instead of electronic transfer. This posed another
complex challenge - flying the money from Ghana to Brazil.
4. Back home in Ghana, the then Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports threw
caution to the wind and announced on radio that the money was ready in a plane
waiting at the airport to fly to Brazil. That singular unguarded comment led to a lot of
media frenzy which attracted international publicity and exposed the country to
ridicule. The details of how the flight was unduly delayed for more than three (3)
days is a story for another day. Eventually, the money was flown to Brazil.
5. At the time that all the arrangements were being made to fly the money from
Ghana to Brazil, the player revolt in camp continued unabated. All attempts to get
the players to train before the last group game failed. They even defied the President
of the Republic who called and spoke to some senior players on phone. In the end,
they refused to train, an action which attracted the wrath of FIFA. The money
subsequently arrived in Brazil and each player was this paid $100,000 CASH! Some of
them were caught on camera kissing their appearance fee amidst jubilations. Of
course, the team performed poorly in the last group game against Portugal who were
already on their way out of the tournament. It is amazing that Ghanaians were
expecting a decent result after the players refused to train and rather sat all night
waiting for the money to arrive.
These are the incontrovertible facts and chronicle of events that caused our woes in
Brazil. The Justice Dzamefe Commission MUST mince no words in capturing these
matters in their report. One may argue that Ghana could have been spared all the
international embarrassment if Cabinet had given the players what they demanded
right from the initial stages. Another may also argue that the players could have
accepted the offer from Cabinet and play for glory. Whichever way it is, the fact of
the matter is that the subject of appearance fees was responsible for our World Cup
disaster. The Commission MUST also include the abhorrent incidence of player
indiscipline in all this saga. If only the players had shown a little respect to the nation,
we would have been telling a different story today.
There is a lot of whispering in the sports fraternity which points to the anticipation of
a report that will focus on the very germane causes of the problems we encountered
in Brazil. Every effort should be made to avoid any over emphasis on peripheral,
tangential and less important subjects. The report must address the core challenges
and causes of the inability of the Black Stars to shine in Brazil. Any attempt at
victimizing and picking on a few people as scape goats will only result in scratching
the surface of the problem.
All the three (3) members of the Commission, the Government, the Ghana Football
Association (GFA), Sports Writers, Presenters, Commentators and most stakeholders
in the sports community are fully aware that player agitation, indiscipline and revolt
were the major causes of our poor showing in Brazil. As to whether the Commission
will boldly call a spade a spade is another matter, especially, when you take into
consideration, the way and manner in which the players were treated with kid gloves
at the Commission's sittings, whiles the tournament organizers were vigorously cross-
examined with hard-hitting questions.
We wait to read, dissect and interrogate the Justice Senyo Dzamefe World Cup
Presidential Commission report. The facts need to be underlined and highlighted
without fear or favour. Ghana must win in this matter. I rest my case, only for now!
I remain yours truly,
OSAGYEFO KWAME FRIMPONG
(+233) 0574950674
([email protected])
Source: KWAME FRIMPONG
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