Fans Threaten To Boycott Ghana's Matches

Over a thousand Germany-based Ghanaians have threatened to boycott matches involving the Black Stars, during next month?s World Cup finals.

This is because they did not have access to the tickets they had ordered from the Ghana Football Association, through Frau Sandra Hiller, a German.


Channelling the Ghanaians? grievances through Guide Sports over the weekend, Mr. Kwame Abrefa-Busia, national president of the Union of Ghanaian Associations in Germany (UGAG), expressed dismay at the misallocation of the tickets they had requested for.


?Tickets ordered by Ghanaian residents in Germany for the various matches have been completely changed to suit the whims and caprices of whoever made the allocations on behalf of the Ghana Football Association (GFA),? he told Guide Sports.


Adding, he said: ?When the list appeared at www.ghanafa.org, on April 28, 2006, every Ghanaian in Germany was shocked that, no one was given the tickets he or she ordered.?


Mr. Abrefa-Busia stated that the FA had asked them to travel to Hanover for the Stars? battle against their Italian counterparts, but it would be difficult for them to travel a long journey to the Hanover base, which was why they made their own choices.

Although many Germany-based Ghanaians ordered tickets of Categories 3 and 4, which cost 50 and 38.50 euros respectively, the UGAG president continued to bemoan that many of them had been put in the Category 1, for which, they had to pay 110 euros.


According to Mr. Abrefa-Busia, his outfit had queried Sandra Hiller, but she attributed the mistakes to the FA, saying she had forwarded the correct list to the FA in Ghana.


The UGAG president said the German lady had told the Ghanaians in Germany that she had informed the FA about the mistakes and that a fresh list would be made available to them in due time.


?Ever since Sandra Hiller gave the assurance some weeks back, the FA has done nothing about our plight,? he pointed out.


?To worsen matters, she has washed her hands off the subject-matter, asking us to contact the FA directly,? he complained.

Mr. Abrefa-Busia hinted that all efforts to channel their problems through the FA, have yielded no results.


He observed that, ?What we need now are the correct tickets for those whose names appeared at the FA?s website, as well as those whose names are missing on the list.?


?We know that, only few of those who applied for the tickets, and are living in Ghana, would be able to travel to Germany, therefore, the massive support for the Stars rests on the Germany-based Ghanaians,? he indicated.


He explained that it behoved on the FA to allocate the right tickets the Ghanaian residents in Germany requested, because failure to do so would lead to them boycotting the Stars? matches.


?Ghanaians in Germany are ever-ready to give the Black Stars the maximum support needed to spur the team on, to win its matches, but we need immediate solutions to the ticketing problems staring at Ghanaians in Germany,? the UGAG president passionately ended.

For his reaction to the foregoing, FA vice president, Lawyer Fred Pappoe described the ticketing problem as unfortunate, stressing that his outfit would do everything possible to ensure that all applicants had access to their preferred tickets.


He noted that, in view of over-subscription; a number of applicants could not be short-listed, adding, ?It was not a mistake.?


?At a point in time, we even had to squeeze in applicants. We didn?t side-step any of the applicants,? the vice president revealed to Guide Sports.


Mr. Pappoe admitted that, although some of the Ghanaian residents in Germany were not short-listed, a lot of them sailed through.


He said the FA is willing to have huge support for the Stars at the World Cup finals, and would be extremely glad to help a number of Ghanaians, regarding the ticketing inconveniences.

The FA vice president appealed to the Ghanaian residents in Germany to contact their friends and loved ones who are living in Ghana, to purchase their preferred tickets through the First Atlantic Bank, near the Trades Union Congress (TUC) building, in Accra.


This, Lawyer Pappoe explained, would help troubled applicants have access to their preferred tickets, in view of the short period of time left for the commencement of the World Cup tourney, in Germany.


He added that, the FA would make sure that those whose names appeared on the FA?s website, and had paid, received their tickets accordingly.


According to Mr. Pappoe, as of a week earlier, only 200 applicants based abroad had paid for the tickets they had applied for.