0

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])