Money became God and paid Ghana like the Devil - Christopher Opoku

I must admit that I selected this as the title for this article because of something my friend and colleague, Kennedy Boakye Ansah said. On GTV’s Match Day programme, he noted that, “Make money your God and it will pay you like the Devil.” I have thought about this quote again and again and clearly it encapsulates the troubles that engulfed most of the African nations competing at the 2014 World Cup, particularly Ghana.

To summarise, when you are going into such a tournament with misplaced priorities and focus, you are on a hiding to nothing! Take Cameroun for example.

The Indomitable Lions refused to fly out of Yaounde until they received their appearance fees.

Eventually, each player received $104,000 each, went to the tournament and ended up losing all three games. Nine goals were conceded with only one conceded and currently, seven unnamed players stand accused of fixing games.

Cameroun’s football governing body, FECAFOOT is currently investigating the matter.

Perhaps they might also investigate what provoked Alexander Song to physically assault Mario Mandzukic during the 0-4 loss to Croatia, as well as a physical altercation between Benoit Assou Ekotto and Benjamin Moukandjo in the same match.

The Super Eagles managed to make it to the second round and almost immediately the players began to demand their qualification bonuses. Indeed, it took the intervention of Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, before Joseph Yobo and his men returned to training. The end result was a 0-2 loss to France.

As for Ghana, the least said about the money situation, the better. Unibank sealed a stunning $400,000 a year sponsorship deal for the Black Stars over a period of three years and part of the bank’s benefits was to open bank accounts for each of the players.

MasterCards were issued to each of the players before they left on their travels. It soon became obvious that there was a serious disconnect as far as negotiations over the appearance fees for the players were concerned. For starters, the then Youth and Sports Minister, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah stated publicly that the players had been prevailed upon to accept an appearance fee of $75,000 each, because of the prevailing economic conditions.

Soon, it became apparent that the cart had been put before the horse because former Adentan Member of Parliament, Kojo Adu Asare was sent to negotiate with the players, who promptly rejected the proposal and demanded $100,000. This was before the friendly match with Montenegro.

I am reliably informed that the players were informed that the money was to hit their accounts at a particular point in time and when that did not happen, the players began to agitate. Ghana’s Vice President, Kwesi Amissah Arthur attempted to calm the waters by telling the players that they would get their $100,000-per-player fees. After the USA game, the players agitated again, this time for the money in cash.

The former Deputy Sports Minister, Joseph Yamin, then publicly announced that plans were being made to transport the money in cash by air to Brazil. Indeed, President John Dramani Mahama had to speak to team captain Asamoah Gyan before the players agreed to emplane for Brasilia for the final match.

Eventually, the money, now confirmed to be at least $4.5 million, arrived in Brazil in the full glare of the international media and the players were understandably happy to receive their fees. John Boye was seen kissing his dollar notes and the rest of the GFA delegation happily took their per diems with one particular person dancing ‘Azonto’ live on TV.

After all this, what happened? Boye scored an own goal against Portugal and could have scored another; the focus of the boys was elsewhere and despite the fact that Germany was leading the United States 1-0 in the other match, the Black Stars failed to capitalize and eventually lost the game to Portugal.

Ghana’s World Cup ended with six goals conceded and just one point to show.

For me, we have no one but ourselves to blame. The practice of paying players by cash over the years has gotten the players used to that kind of payment and no wonder they railed against electronic payment. The GFA hierarchy also has to take part of the blame for failing to deal effectively with player agitation in camp and indeed, there are suspicions that most of them were secretly behind the players because that meant that they would also get their per diems in cash soon enough.

The Government also blundered because they caved in to the demands of the players and as a result, almost $500,000 was paid in taxes to the Brazilian government. Ghana is now the butt of international jokes and some even wonder whether we have banks in the country.

More seriously, this has also cast a huge slur on Ghana’s standing on the international market. As a developing country, if Ghana can afford to recklessly cart $4.5 million to players, with all the attendant problems in the country, what will our international donors think of us? Will Ghana not be seen as a poor credit risk and will it not make it more difficult for the government to secure loans? I guess the ramifications were not thought through.

Money clearly dominated the minds of the players, the GFA big wigs, the Sports Ministry and the government and it is fair to say that since money became a God for them, Ghana was indeed paid like the Devil.