Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah has raised questions about Asamoah Gyan’s role in the in-famous Black Stars player boycott at the 2014 FIFA world cup that tarnished the reputation of the country badly.
Ankrah was the sector minister at the time and Gyan, the Black Stars captain. Gyan’s on field and off field decisions has come under significant attack from some political figures after he was named on the manifesto committee of the New Patriotic Party ahead of the 2024 elections.
Gyan and his teammates demanded $100,000 in physical cash as appearance fees before training and playing in a final group game against Portugal.
Speaking exclusively to Akoma Sports in Kumasi, the then Sports Minister left the judgement to Ghanaians to decide whether the actions of Asamoah Gyan was politically motivated or not.
He said: “I don’t know whether it was political, but Ghanaians can judge whether it was political that a professional player and his colleagues say they would not train unless they see physical cash. That one, anybody can judge for themselves whether it was political or not.
“They refused to train, and it affected them in the final match. Ghanaians should judge whether it was political or indiscipline. I don’t know”, he added.
Ghana had to fly over $4.5 million dollars to Brazil in 2014 before the players agreed to honor the last group game with Portugal.
The Black Stars lost to the United States in their first group game, played a spirited game to draw with Germany who eventually won the tournament before losing to Portugal in their last group game.
Ankrah is convinced the players led by Gyan threw away a unique opportunity to make history.
“I was very disappointed because that was a team that I had hope in, that we could make history. In fact, that team could have even gone to the semis or the finals.
“When I say it then people be like oh.. there is a basis. First of all, during the preparations, we scored Egypt 6-1 and it has never happened before. No one has scored Egypt 6-1 before.
“Number two.. our match with Germany, that match was adjudged by FIFA technical Committee. FIFA’s technical committee is made up of all the coaches of the world, and that technical team adjudged our match with Germany as the game of the tournament, and in that match, it was 2-2. No team was able to score Germany two goals. Eventually Germany won the tournament.
So, if it’s not for the things that happened and they remained focused, I believe that we could have made history. We lost that opportunity, today, what’s happened to all of them?” he asked.
By Richard Acheampong: Akoma Sports