Black Stars World Cup Exit: Off Pitch Drama, On Pitch Circus

The Black Stars ill-fated world cup campaign stemmed from several factors, a tough group, poor tactics, poor defending, and profligacy upfront. These are the footballing reasons, but beyond that the Stars were kicked out due to the circus that the team’s camp was turned into.

Events that have transpired around the Stars since they touched down in Brazil has been so unbelievable that you would be forgiven if you thought you were following one of those poorly written Mexican soap operas. There was violence, money issues, verbal disparagement, and my personal favourite; tears.

Amidst all these, is it any wonder that the team have been kicked out of the first round for the first time in their history? Above everything else, teamwork is the secret ingredient of football sides. Teamwork is what leads to improbable victories like Zambia at CAN 2012, Chelsea and Liverpool in the 2012 and 2005 UEFA Champions League, and the Black Satellites in Egypt 2009.

After the shambles that was CAN 2012, when the spirit in camp resembled what you would find in an internment camp filled with Americans and Russians, one would have thought lessons had been learned. But no, events in Brazil have shown that once again short-sightedness is the bane of African administrators.

The Black Stars team were agitating for their appearance bonuses on Tuesday, two days before the crucial game against Portugal. The team refused to train on that day, again two days before their most important game. Aside the disruption in the team preparations, there is the issue of mistrust between players and management. A situation like that breeds discord, and when these two bodies are not working in tandem but barely tolerating each other, results like yesterday’s loss becomes the order of the day.

How about arrangements being made ahead of time? Ghana has participated in two world cups before now so what was the protocol in Germany and South Africa? Not mentioning the public relations gaffe that is the flying in of cash to the players, in the full glare of the world media. The Black Stars would have been better off being rechristened the Black Cash!

Amidst this atmosphere of distrust and unpatriotism, was anyone surprised to learn of the suspension of Prince and Muntari? There was a breakdown of discipline predating the two incidents; and with characters as volatile as these two chaos was inevitable. With the events that were reported to have transpired, sending them away was the right decision. But after all that had happened before then it was kind of putting a band-aid over a gaping wound.

Questions, questions, and no answers; whilst the team showed flashes of brilliance, and probably should have eked out the win over Germany, off-field issues proved too much to overcome. In truth the team were doomed after the opening day loss against USA, as it was from then that everything started going downhill. The on-field issues are innumerable on their own, but that is another post for another day.

At this point Ghana is out of the world cup, and surprisingly I feel very little disappointment. I do not know how many Ghanaians feel as I do, but after all that transpired the team lost my loyalty, and the saddest thing is that it is our collective reputations as Ghanaians which has taken a hit from this disgraceful TV show we put on for the entire world.