Sammy the Sheriff

Patriotism is becoming a scarce commodity in every endevour in our Ghanaian society.

Politicians don't have it Workers have lost it Soccer Players favor money more than patriotism

The GFA will be on a better road of putting Ghana soccer at its rightful place by not acceding to the demands of the Ayew brothers who have tendered in their letters of temporal resignation. How many times is GFA going to allow itself to be intimidated by some Players who think the destiny of Ghana soccer is in their hands and therefore should be catered to their whimsical and frivolous demands as Jordan Ayew, an ordinary Player who doesn't even deserve to wear a Blackstar jersey at this stage of his soccer career if not by his family connection. The Ayew brothers should be allowed to retire permanently or if they want to come back, they should be made to write a letter of apology and beg for reinstatement. Dede at a tender age of 23 has done a lot for Blackstars but he should not forget that, if it was not the Blackstars, he would not have been where he is now. Before the 2010 World cup, his team Marselleis has consigned him to a second division team where he was languishing in obscurity. He only became a known soccer footballer after his exploits at the 2010 world cup tournament after being exposed by the national team and Marselleis immediately called him back into the team. Soccer is a team game and you are not going to have a team where you have undiscipline Players who want to be treated differently than the other team members.

I do understand the GFA is not perfect and has some challenges but the issue should be addressed in house instead of Players showing the governing body of Ghana soccer up by ridiculing it publicly.

I became Andre Ayew number one supporter during the 2010 World cup soccer tournament in South Africa where he emerged as the best Player in the Ghana team and one of the best Players at that tournament. I even commented in one of those Ghanaweb articles that, we have our own Messi in Dede and he won my respect in the 2012 AFCON when he played through a shoulder injury that most Players would have sat on the bench in street clothes instead of having his shoulder socket being popped into place time and time again and fighting like the Warrior that he is. Who will not admire such a character? He won the admiration of many Ghana soccer fans but just along the road, something happened that has changed my hero into a soccer villain. I do understand he is young but he has his father and numerous Advisors who should have advised him to bide his time because he was on the road to the captainship of the Blackstars until he subtly demanded the captainship armband through his other brother. The timing couldn't even had been worse when we have a Captain at the time.

Andre allowed the accolades to go into his head and started making ridiculous demands. He demanded the number 10 jersey at a time when somebody had it and if it was not Kwadwo Asamoah the humblest of guys in Blackstars who humbly gave it to him, it could have brought a friction into the team. Andre again showed his disciplinery problems when he was substituted in the Ghana Malawi game at a stage when Ghana was leading comfortably with six goals to nil. Coach Kwesi Appiah did not replace Dede in my estimation because he was playing bad but I think he did that to avoid injury to one of his best Players for the next match but Dede did not see it that way and went beserk insulting the Coach and his technical staff. Dede even refused to shake the hands or hug Daniel Nii Adjei who was called to replace him and went to the bench still fuming and ignoring his teamates who tried to thank calm him down.

Now comes the AFCON 2013 and Coach Kwesi Appiah made his selection without Jordan Ayew. Not everybody agreed to that selection especially at a time when a Muntari and Waris too were left out of the team. Dede Ayew because his brother was not selected deviced a strategy not to accept his invitation by faking an injury. The Coaching staff gave Dede Ayew two chances to report to the team so that Blackstars medical staff can ascertain the extent of his injury and recommend treatment but he refused to report on those two occassions instead chose his own time he wanted to report to the team on Wednesday January the 9th, the same day Coach Appiah and his technical team were supposed to give the names of his 23 man squad to AFCON. This is at a time the Coach has vowed not to take any injured player to the tournament and Dede put the Coach in a position where he had to take a chance by submitting his name amongst the 23 man squad without knowing whether Dede was injured or not so he left him out of the squad, the same standard used to leave Muntari out of the team.

Coach Appiah did what any Coach worth his name should have done by leaving Dede out of the team and because of this, Coach Appiah's and Abedi Pele, the father of the Ayew brothers long simmering feud was ressurrected by the Ayews apologists as the reason why the Coach left the Ayew brothers out of the team. What these apologists failed to realise is that, it was the same Coach Appiah that invited Jordan Ayew to the Blackstars when he Jordan has no business being in the senior national team. Jordan Ayew has not exemplified himself as a Blackstar material all the time he has featured for the team and he was rightfully left out of the 2013 AFCON squad. Jordan Ayew is an up and coming star with a potential to unseat Gyan as the main Ghana striker but at the moment, we have Waris who I think is better at this stage than Jordan and Boakye Yiadom a potential replacement for Gyan hovering around the wings.

Now Jordan has written to GFA that he is retiring temporary unless GFA can guarantee him a permanent place in Blackstars until when nobody knows. Such a demand should not be entertained by GFA neither should they entertain his brother Dede's demand of trying to change the management of the team. What Dede want is to get Coach Appiah fired and the Captainship band handed to him. GFA should nip this disease in the Blackstars called "I AM RETIRING TEMPORARY" in the bud to maintain discipline. Even Messi, Ronaldo, Falcao and top Players in the world will not dare tell the governing soccer bodies of their countries how to run the team.

GFA should learn from Nigeria which failed to qualify for 2012 AFCON with the slew of European based stars due to disciplinary problems but solved that problem by leaving the undisciplined Players like Yakubu and others out of the 2013 Green Eagles team and what did we see? NIGERIA, AFRICAN CHAMPIONS. We should not entertain Players who want hold Blackstars to ransome. Any Player who wants to retire temporary should be retired permanently without any official begging and believe me, these Players will come begging to be allowed into he team and this nonsense will stop once and for all.