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Sports News of Saturday, 18 November 2017

Source: ghanacrusader.com

Osei Palmer launches fresh attacks on Nii Lante

Former Sports Minister Honourable Nii Lante Vanderpuye Former Sports Minister Honourable Nii Lante Vanderpuye

Black Stars Management Committee Vice Chairman, Wilfred Osei Kweku Palmer, has slammed former Sports Minister Honourable Nii Lante Vanderpuye, over Ghana’s inability to qualify to their fourth successive World Cup in Russia.

Ghana’s failed campaign in the just ended 2018 World Cup Qualification (WCQ) has illuminated various disturbing occurrences which didn’t aid the Black Stars secure qualification as various stakeholders in the football fraternity are playing the blame game accusations.

The former Sports Ministry which was headed by Hon. Nii Lante has largely being blamed for Ghana’s inability to qualify for the World Cup by some officials of the Ghana Football Association(GFA) who claim Hon. Nii Lante distorted their responsibilities to the Black Stars with his ‘unnecessary’ intervention.

Speaking on the Football Legends Night Show on GH ONE TV yesterday, Palmer said: “I was very disappointed with the kind of frosty relationship we had with the former Sports Ministry, which wasn’t the best. Particularly when you had a Sports Minister who was always on our neck and people felt it was the friendly matches he was talking about that was of a bother to the GFA.

“But when you have a Sports Minister always issuing derogatory remarks on the Black Stars, the moment you do that you breakdown the confidence of the boys. I quite remember the day before the Uganda match the was meeting between the Sports Minister and players which didn’t go well at all even without the consent of the management.

When answering the question as what was the cause of the frosty relationship between the Sports Minister and the GFA back in the past, Palmer said:” It was for the Minister’s ego, here is the Minster who feels he is the smartest person on earth to the extent of feeling we didn’t have the expertise of managing the team and he feels he can do it better.”