Soccer fans in and around Accra and Tema municipalities have expressed misgivings about the way Mr Ben Koufie, Chairman for the Ghana Football Association (GFA) conducted himself on his arrival with the Black Stars from Mali on Tuesday night.
The chairman conspicuously lambasted the local sports journalists on the story credited to him as having sacked coach Osam Duodu, head of the technical team of the national team.
Mr Koufie described the report as wicked, malicious, unfounded and treacherous. A cross section of people the GNA Sports interviewed were of the view that Mr Koufie handled the issues poorly and not like the well-natured and level headed man that Ghanaians have known him.
Nana Kwasi, a soccer analyst of Tema said the hash tone with which the GFA boss addressed the press was very worrying. Mavis Owusu Sekyere, a student insisted that though she appreciates Mr Koufie's willingness to be firm and strong, football involves a lot of passion and he needed to tame his ego not to fuel the already volatile issue.
"It is glaring that something is being hidden from us from the way the chairman spoke. He contradicted himself when the issue of jerseys came up," Maame Kai, a soccer fan in Accra said.
Another fan, Ishmael Sai said Mr Koufie attempted to brush aside legitimate concerns and choose to attack the media. "Most of his words were too harsh and I wonder the sort of example he was setting", he said.
On the contrary some fans also believe Uncle Ben is becoming fed up with misrepresentations in the media hence his sudden flare-up was just a matter of course. To them the media was becoming too vibrant and, in their quest to fish out information, step on too many toes.
