Kwasi Appiah stays despite World Cup howler

Kwasi Appiah stays despite World Cup howler

By Mohammed Awal (awalm19gmail.com)

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) says beleaguered Coach Kwasi Appiah is staying as Head Coach of the senior national team, the Black Stars, despite a chaotic World Cup campaign in Brazil.

Kwasi Appiah

According to the GFA President, Kwasi Nyantakyi, the decision to maintain Coach Kwasi Appiah was arrived at the GFA’s Executive Committee Meeting yesterday.

The committee, he told journalists at a press briefing, “expressed its confidence in the continuity in office of the Black Stars’ head coach."

 The committee, he said, was satisfied with the coach’s performance in Brazil, hence, the decision to extend his stay as Head Coach, and that discussions about his contract extension was in the pipeline.

However, soccer pundits think otherwise. According to them, the coach showed that tactically he is incapable of handling the job.

Money row

The GFA President said the biggest challenge they encountered during the tournament in Brazil was a monetary issue, where the players’ appearance fees were not paid in time.

The Black Stars, prior to their last group game against Portugal, threatened to boycott the game due unsettled appearance fees, forcing the Government of Ghana to intervene by flying $3 million, via a chartered airplane from Accra to Brasilia.

The move, the government has since defended, even though it admitted it was “unconventional.”

The reasons for the delay in the payment of the appearance fees were as a result of the players rejecting the FA’s proposal to pay them $82,500, and also the mode of payment.

Mr. Nyantakyi said they offered to pay the Black Stars players $82,500 as appearance fee, but they repudiated that amount out rightly demanding a $100,000.

Another challenge was the mode of payment. The players, he added, rejected the idea of the money being wired to them, rather demanding that it was paid in cash.

The management and government officials, he explained, sought to explain the basis of the budget to the players, which ended up in a deadlock. "While the players were demanding $100,000 appearance fee, we offered $82,500.”

Players to sign contract

The World Cup in Brazil, Nyantakyi said, taught the country “bitter lesson”, adding that henceforth, emphasis would be placed on discipline.

The current code of conduct of the Black Stars players, he noted, would be transformed into a contract with detailed terms and conditions as the basis for future call up.

This contract, he explained, will include bonuses, appearance fee, and the mode of payment of this largesse.

In Brazil Kwasi Appiah had to axe two of his senior players from camp due to disciplinary issues - Sulley Muntari and Kevin Prince Boateng.

The decision to remove them from camp, the GFA said in a statement, was a result of the display of gross indiscipline.

Sulley Muntari, the statement said, was sacked due to an unprovoked physical attack he heaved on Moses Parker, whilst Kevin’s was a result of a vitriolic verbal attack he spewed on Coach Kwasi Appiah.