THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA NATIONAL TEAM HAVE HOLD THE NATIONAL AT RANSOM

It was  more than an embarrasing sight last Wednesday, the 25th June 2014  as the world watched on and a $3million cash for Ghana’s Black Stars was escorted from the airport tarmac by Brazilian police to the team’s camp in Brasilia.

The team had threatened to boycott training over unpaid allowances and a presidential intervention saw the cash flown to Brazil in chartered flight to save the situation. 

At a time when the team needed to focus on their last game and fight for qualification, they were distracted by a needless and an avoidable issue and as if that was not enough, the Sulley Muntari ‘madness’ also reared its ugly head.

Appearing for the third time in succession at the World Cup, it was the general belief that the Black Stars might have picked valuable lessons from what had happened to other African teams who allowed themselves to be distracted by money issues at a World Cup. But alas! that was not to be as the Stars suffered the same fate as Cameroon, Togo and Nigeria in the past.

Over the years, African countries have experienced missed fortunes at the World Cup, thanks largely to numerous incidents of clashes between players and officials over money, due to a breakdown of  trust among players and officials and interestingly, the issue is dominant mostly in West African teams.

There have been predictions that before this century ends, an African team will be crowned world champions, and a West African team has been tipped to lead that charge.

That prediction is a possibility, as African teams have proved over the years they are blessed with enormous talent to compete at the highest level. At least, in the last four World Cups, African stars  impressed and gave the indication that with the right attitude, winning the coveted was within the reach of African sides.

For each World Cup, there has been so much hope and promise for the continent's representatives, yet the best showing by an African side was a quarter-final bid by Cameroun in 1990 and Ghana two decades later.

More often than not, the off-the-pitch incidents tend to rock the boat for most African teams, pushing that dream farther and farther away.

Cameroun have attended seven World Cups, and with the notable exception of the 1990 tournament in Italy which saw the Roger Milla-inspired side reach the quarter-finals, the Indomitable Lions have bowed out at the group stage in the 1982, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2010 and 2014 tourneys.

Why issues over money seem to be the bane of Cameroun is inexplicable. The issue of trust between the players and the Cameroun Football Association (FECAFOOT) over the payment of bonuses seem to be a never-ending one.

Ahead of Brazil 2014, Agence France-Presse and Eurosport quoted Le Jour newspaper detailing a huge difference between players and officials:

 “The Cameroun government, last week, offered 61,000 euros, which the players rejected, and then increased it to 68,000 euros, which was also turned down, Cameroun daily Le Jour reported.

Le Jour said the players were demanding more than 120 million CFA francs (182,000 euros) each. The daily blasted the demand as “indecent.”

Such situations, according to freelance writer Jonathan Wilson, is the norm for Cameroun, but it almost got out of hand when the players refused to board their plane to Brazil at their scheduled travelling time.

They eventually arrived in Brazil and had their worst appearance, failing to secure a single point.

Even worse, they left the world with an unforgettable image when Benoit Assou-Ekotto head-butted his teammate, Benjamin Moukandjo, moments after a 0-4 loss to Croatia in their second game.

Nigerian players are no different.The players and staff have struggled to agree on payment in recent times. A dispute over bonuses nearly led the players into boycotting the FIFA Confederations Cup, but an agreement was struck with Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi just before last year’s tournament, and all seems to be calm in the camp of Super Eagles. According to reports, each Nigerian player will earn $100,000 if they win this year's World Cup, with a total of $2.6 million up for grabs across the entire squad.

Ghana’s camp has been hit with the bug and the Stars have had to pay the price with their exit from the first round.

The players’ refusal to receive their money through their accounts with uniBank, their official sponsor, in preference for $100,000 in cash.

Not only was the issue a source of embarrassment to Ghanaians, but also the players’ action confirmed a level of mistrust between the parties involved.

After two World Cup appearances, what went wrong this time in Brazil? It could not have been that bad, coming on the heels of a scandalous report that alleged that the GFA had been in talks with a company over a potential deal for the national to ‘fix’ the results of future international friendlies.

As if that was not enough, last Tuesday, the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Joseph Yammin, told the whole world that the $3million appearance fees for the team had been sent by chartered flight, this almost spontaneously making Ghana a ridicule in the international media with all kinds of headlines.

Mr Yammin and his utterances will be a topic for discussion on another day.

How did Ghana get to this crossroad when in 2006 and 2010 there were no such incidents? Of course, in 2010 some of the allowances were in arrears and that forced then captain, John Mensah, to block the entrance of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) with his four-wheel drive in demand of the money.

Not that African players are the only ones who receive allowances and bonuses from the World Cup, yet there are no hullabaloo over how they receive their money.

For instance, Spain were to expect a bonus totalling €720,000 each if they retained their title in Brazil, while Germany and Brazil players were assured of €300,000 and €330,000 respectively if they were crowned champions, according to ESPN.

 Charles Sale of the Daily Mail wrote that England reached an agreement that would see each Three Lions player pocket £350,000 (€433,000) with a final win. 

 So what makes the issue of bonus a never-ending tussle when it comes to African teams? It must be stressed that hardly does such an incident pop up among the North African teams.  

Why would the players who receive their weekly wages or monthly salaries from their clubs through their banks refuse to use the same process when it comes to national duty?

 After all these years, is there no blueprint over how to disburse funds to players?

The banking laws in the country as recently laid down by the Bank of Ghana do not allow one to physically carry along such huge sums, so why didn't the officials agree on that before the team even embarked on their preparatory tour? 

What happened to the uniBank visa cards presented to the team just before they emplaned for The Netherlands?

And what happened to the recommendations in the aftermath of the loss of the $40,000 meant for the national team which the late Sports Minister, Mallam Ali Yusif Isa, had in his custody on a flight to Sudan during a World Cup qualifier?

Why would the law be circumvented just in the name of the Stars? Are they above the law?

The questions are inexhaustible, but the answers are hard to get.

However, there should be a laid down procedure henceforth to pay all national teams.

Perhaps, all these have happened because of the leaders’ inability to keep their word. Once a promise is made and a time set, there should be no going back on that word. However, in several situations, that is not the case and players have to literally ‘chase’ their money long after an assignment has been undertaken.

While it is important to give what is due and promised the players, it will be setting a bad precedent when government behaves the way it did last Tuesday. 

What the government should have done was to pay the money into the players’ account at uniBank, given them the pay-in documents and see if they would have rejected the cash in their accounts which they could easily access with their uniBank MasterCards.

Football is the passion of the nation and at a time when the nation needed something to lift its spirit, the Stars held just used their power to hold the nation to ransom.

Maybe, just maybe, the players felt holding the nation to ransom was the only way to get what was due them. That only goes to emphasise Alan Greenspan’s saying: “When trust is lost, a nation’s ability to transact business is palpably undermined.” Yes, even doing business with rich footballers