President of the Ghana Supporters Union, Abraham Boakye alias One Man Supporter, has revealed that former Black Stars greats Abele Pele and Kwasi Appiah were best friends.
According to One Man Supporter, the Black Stars captaincy issue in 1992 birthed the rivalry between the two.
"They were best friends...They were both called to the Black Stars in the same year, so whenever Abedi came to Kumasi, he was always with Kwasi Appiah," he told Wontumi radio.
Regarding the captaincy feud, he narrated that Kwasi Appiah was initially named as Black Stars captain prior to Ghana's game against Nigeria in Kumasi.
"We faced Nigeria in Kumasi when we regrouped our team. At the time, Opoku Nti was the interim captain and there was no substantive captain...They had not named a captain but people were speculating that it would be Abedi others said Kwasi Appiah.
"They(the technical team) waited until Sunday when the players had left their hotel for the stadium and while they were in the dressing room, CK Gyamfi and the other handlers called Abedi and Kwasi Appiah and told them that 'we want to name the captain but we don't know who played for the Black Stars firt'.
"So Abedi responded that they both featured in the same game but he started from the bench whereas Kwasi Appiah started the game'...So they named Kwesi as the captain," he said.
Kwasi Appiah led the team throughout the qualifiers only to lose the captaincy to Abedi a few weeks before the start of the 1992 AFCON in Senegal.
"So when we qualified and went to Lisbone for two weeks of training before the trip to Dakar, that was when CK Gyamfi and the others said Abedi is fluent in French (so he should be the captain). Abedi didn't play in any of the games in Lisbone, Poku Nti was the best man. So it was a day before they departed to Dakar, that was when they said Abedi is fluent in French so he was named captain and that triggered a lot of issues."
According to many Ghanaians the captaincy rift denied Ghana from winning the AFCON. Some players who were part of the squad stated it created factions in the squad.
Another late captaincy switch occurred during the tournament when Anthony Baffoe was named captain after Abedi Pele missed out through suspension. Some players believe Tony Yeboah deserved the be the captain of the game.
Prince Polly who was a member of the squad noted that the decision shredded the team's confidence for the final.
"The captain's band was a minor issue which should not have derailed our ambition to win the trophy at stake but it got out of hand due to how it was handled,"
"The manner in which it was handled changed the mood in camp and dampened team spirit just before we went into the match against Cote d’Ivoire," Polley told Graphic Sports Online.
He noted that "Just after the announcement of the change of captaincy, a state of despondency was created in the hall and we were quiet as if we had lost a valuable item. For me, it was the team spirit that was sapped from us before such a crucial match."
Tony Yeboah speaking about the event said: “To be honest I was very surprised and at the same time, the Kumasi group was shocked so it was affecting us during the game. They knew I was assistant captain,” Yeboah said in an interview with Kwabena Yeboah on GTV.
“That time Tony Baffoe was new in the national team and shouldn’t have been captain. I think this situation affected us a lot. Before the game, Otto Pfister told us that we have a letter from Ghana that Tony Baffoe should be captain. Everybody was shocked and it affected the team,” he said.
Ghana eventually lost the final 11-12 on penalties to Ivory Coast.
EE/KPE
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