Re: Van der Pluym tags GFA Racist

On Wednesday 2nd November, 2011, an article appeared on the online football portal www.footyghana.com which suggested that in an interview with a reporter from the Ghana News Agency (GNA) coach Hans Van der Pluym had tagged the GFA, and or its operatives, as “RACIST”.
That article, or its source from the GNA, was a complete misrepresentation of the facts. Coach Van der Pluym did grant the said interview, which sought to find out his reaction to losing out on the National U-20 coaching job.
He did say that he had faith in Coach Orlando Wellington, being a coach he had worked with before. He also expressed that he had hoped that he might have been considered for the role, considering that he had lived for longer than a decade in Ghana, was married to a Ghanaian, had settled permanently in Ghana, and felt Ghanaian; he had initiated the process of going further than attaining his permanent residence permit, which he has had for a while, to applying for full Ghanaian citizenship. At no point did he mention that he was Ghanaian.
When the GFA advertised the national teams’ vacancies, there was no implicit or explicit suggestion that only Ghanaian coaches were to apply.
At no point during the application process was he told that he was excluded by citizenship. He expressed a disappointment in the lack of clear communication on who qualified to apply, but also clearly stated his understanding, even support, of the GFA’s policy to develop local coaching in this way. He made a verbal protest about the article to the online portal and they took down the article on the same day, but not before it had been picked up by other print and electronic media houses.
Hans Van der Pluym has always maintained his love for Ghana and never misses the chance to tell people that he feels Ghanaian. The original article and its re-broadcasts have put him in a bad light only because his words were paraphrased and misrepresented.
We would like the GNA, and its correspondent, to accept that in paraphrasing the coach’s words in the said interview, he has been misrepresented and to send a press release to media houses to set the records straight. At no point did Hans Van der Pluym say or imply that the GFA and or its operatives were racist.