CAF POTY is bias towards Anglophone countries - Nyantakyi

Ghana FA President Kwesi Nyantakyi admits CAF must revise its way of awarding the Best African player following the disappointment of Andre Ayew at the recently held African Player of the Year awards gala.

The Ghana forward was gutted not to have been handed the award for the first team with Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang being handed the prestigious gong instead.

Aubameyang’s accession to the throne as king of African football has since sharply divided opinions – with some, mostly Ghanaians – feeling Andre Ayew should have been given the award for especially his sterling performance at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations where Ghana came second to Cote d’Ivoire.

It, however, appears the Gabonese’s excellent form for Borussia Dortmund in the year under review was strong enough to sway the votes in his favour at the expense of Yaya Toure who also led Ivory Coast to Nations Cup glory in Equatorial Guinea.

The CAF African Player of the Year award have been dominated by players from Francophone Africa with 17 out of the 24 editions won by players from French-speaking African countries with only 7 from Anglophone countries.

And this, Nyantakyi feels, is a biased trend which favours Francophone countries and must be looked at.

“I strongly believe that factors that have accounted for this worrying trend must be critically looked at,” he told the Ghanaian Times newspaper.

“Sincerely, I was hugely optimistic for Ayew, but surprisingly, he placed third outside my expectations – and I am really disappointed.

“Based on his performance with the national team and club side, I believe he deserved to win.”

Nyantakyi who also serves on CAF’s Executive Committee adds that the feature in Francophone African countries where there is wider access to major European leagues as against the situation of pay-per-view in Anglophone countries may be a major contributory factor.

“This gives a lot of exposure to their players,” he said.

“The situation is, however, different in Ghana and most Anglophone countries where access to major European Leagues is based on pay-per-view.

“It should not be enough justification for the awards to roll the way of Francophone countries all the time.”