What happened to the Black Stars of Ghana ?

John Boye and other Black Stars players might have kissed dollars

before Ghana's match against Portugal at the2014 world cup but in

reality it wasn't the dollars they kissed, it was their popularity

they finally kissed goodbye. They kissed goodbye to Ghanaians'

seemingly incurable obsession with the Black Stars and football. The

passion, enthusiasm and madness about the Black Stars is gone for now

or possibly forever.

Ooh yes, the Black Stars are in town and they are scheduled to play

the cranes of Uganda in an African cup of nations qualifier in Kumasi

but no one seems to care. Nobody is talking about it. For the first

time, the media haven't given the match much publicity and hype like

they previously did. It bothers on one thing, the Black Stars traded

patriotism for money and they are paying the price for their

unpatriotic and selfish act. Why must we spend our little pennies to

support a group of players who have no respect for the Ghanaian

people.

Ghanaians have been fooled for quite too long a time by the stars.

They plead on radio and television rallying for our support under the

pretence of supporting ones country of birth. They often remark,

" we are going to kill ourselves for Ghana so please come and support

us. " They further remark with their newly acquired slangs " we'

gonna sacrifice ourselves for Ghana, so come cheer us up "

So l ask Asamoah Gyan and his greedy bunch of ungrateful Black Stars

players, how can you charge your nation

$15, 000 ( dollars) for just ninety minutes of a game yet you

hypocritically and unashamedly call that sacrifice ? It seems they

don't understand the meaning of the word SACRIFICE. Do they ?

If taking $ 15,000 from ones own country within a stipulated time of

ninety minutes is the modern definition of the word SACRIFICE, then l

want to tell the government of Ghana; every Ghanaian wants to

SACRIFICE so they should kindly pack us into a bone-shaker bus to the

Baba Yara sports stadium for us to aimlessly kick football like the

Black Stars did against Portugal for ninety minutes and be paid $

15,000. Annoyingly, they also claim taking $15,000 for a game of

ninety minutes is tantamount to " killing ourselves for the country."

If then, we are ready to kill ourselves for the country in order to be

paid $15,000. In fact, l want to be crucified if only my 15,000 is

guaranteed after ninety minutes.

It's factually factual that these players accrue much benefit by

playing for Ghana as compared to the benefits Ghana gets from their

services. Before the 2010 world cup, Kevin Prince Boateng was playing

for Pourtsmouth FC in England who had just been relegated to the

championship. He came to the world cup without a club. After the world

cup he was signed by european giants AC Milan and paid millions of

euros annually. Similarly, Asamoah Gyan was playing for Rennes in

France before the 2010 world cup but made a big money move to

Sundearland FC that earned him

£ 30,000 weekly wages and subsequently joined Al-Ain in the gulf

Arabian region where he is currently paid an unbelievable

$ 200,000 weekly wages all because of the exposure Black Stars gave

him at the 2010 world cup.

Same can be said of numerous Black Stars players whose footballing

careers were almost dead till they use the Black Stars in re-launching

the careers. Today they are multi millionaires because of the exposure

Ghana gave them from the under 17 level to the senior national team.

How they spend their money is no business of mine but please they

shouldn't use their money in expensive and careless jet-ski

expeditions to kill our favourite musicians.

The government through the ministry of sports must take a BOLD

decision by terminating the appearance fee and winning bonus nonsense

currently being used by the players and greedy GFA officials to dupe

the state. How can a GFA official and a management committee member of

the team who went to Brazil by the taxpayers money be paid an

appearance fee of

$ 100,000 dollars. It's pure madness. Do GFA officials play the

matches themselves. Rev Osei Kofi, Baba Yara and other Black Stars

players were paid absolutely nothing buy they won us the 1963 and 1965

nations cup trophies. Today, we pay them $15,000 as winning bonus,

$100,000 as appearance fees in addition to daily per diem of $150 for

every single day whiles camping and ALL we get from them is how they

arrogantly insult our ministers of state ( Muntari vs Muntaka ),

slapping of our officials ( Muntari vs Moses Parker ), arrogantly

going on International retirement ( Dede and Jordan Ayew ), choosing

club over country ( Michael Essien at Chelsea in 2006 ) and insulting

Ghanaians like K.P Boateng did after he announced his retirement after

the 2010 world cup and recently going on sexy jamboree jet-ski trip on

the rivers of Ada to kill our favourite musicians.

If l had my own away, unlike President Mahama and Otumfour who begged

the arrogant Ayew brothers to rescind their decision of international

retirement, those Ayew boys will never wear the Black Stars jersey

again. Kevin Prince Boateng will never play for Ghana again. Essien

will be kicked out of the team. Sulley Muntari will even be banned

from watching our matches at every stadium. For Christ sake, this is

Ghana !!!!!!

A nation where real and actual footballers far better than the Ayews,

the Muntari's and Essiens are even not selected for our national teams

because of bribery and corruption. Why must we allow a bunch of

indiscipline and arrogant footballers to hold an entire nation to

ransom all in the name of 90 minutes of football ? Even Lionel Messi,

Ronaldo, Rooney and Robben play for their nations with less than

$15,000 as winning bonuses and absolutely no appearance fees, how more

the Fatau Dauda's and the Albert Adomah's.

A nation calls for duty now!!!!!!

God bless our homeland Ghana and make our leaders wise and strong.

Michael Kwadwo Nketiah

(kwadwonketia47@mail.com)