Ghana's black jersey not the reason for 2006 AFCON knockout - Godwin Attram

Former Ghana International, Godwin Atram has laughed off suggestions that the Black Stars choice of jersey was one of the contributing factors that resulted in the team’s abysmal display at the 2006 African Cup of Nations.

Attram who was a member of Ghana’s 2006 African Cup of Nations squad admits there were problems in the team during the tournament but says any allusion that the team failed because of the black jersey they wore in one of the games is nothing but a figment of the imagination.

Ghana recorded one of its worst performance at the African Cup of Nations in Egypt where the team got knocked out of the tournament in the Group stages.

The Black Stars picked up only three points at the tournament in three games. Ghana suffered a defeat to Nigeria in the first game, beat Senegal in the second game but lost to Zimbabwe in the final match in an abysmal fashion.

The team was heavily criticized for their poor performance at the tournament and notable among the criticism was the jersey Ghana wore in the final group match. The Black Stars wore a black jersey for the final game against Zimbabwe who were tagged as under-dogs.

The underdogs shocked the four-time champions by 2-1 to dump the Black Stars out of the competition.

Attram recalls that the exit from the tournament was painful but says “It is not about the jersey, you know we talk about superstition and all that whenever mistakes come and we want to shade it to some excuses”.

Speaking on Ghanaweb’s Sports Check programme, coach Godwin Attram said the team's poor performance was from the technical side and the omission of certain players from the squad.

“I feel that, that year we missed some players in the team because Essien, Sulley, Asamoah were on top at that time and they were young and coming up at that time but they were not part of the tournament based on certain things that happened. Aside from that Appiah, Laryea, Osei Kuffuor, some few senior players were there but the problem was that, I feel the problem was from the technical side,” Godwin Attram told Ghanaweb.

He added that “it has happened and we have ended our career and we’re in a different level now” where retired players must be given the opportunity to handle the national team.