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Sports News of Tuesday, 10 November 2015

Source: ghanasoccernet.com

Stars boycott training

Players of the Black Stars leaving the pitch Players of the Black Stars leaving the pitch

Ghana sports ministry’s failure to pay the pitch staff of the Accra Sports Stadium for THREE YEARS disrupted the Black Stars opening training session for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers as unpaid workers staged a boycott, leaving the playing surface in a disgraceful state.

Workers of Green Grass Technology, the company contracted to put the pitch in a good shape, opted not to work because of their unpaid monies, exposing the rot at the heart of the Sports Ministry and National Sports Authority’s management of the country’s flagship stadium.

A furious Black Stars coach Avram Grant was seen gesturing over the cassava farm-like look of the pitch which proved dangerous to players of the national team whose clubs have invested millions of dollars in signing them.

The Ghana national team, who were opening their training of the world’s best football competition, were isolated as a small space on the pitch as the outgrown grass made the pitch completely unusable.

Journalists attending the training session were shamed when they saw the state of the pitch.

The Managing Director of Green Grass Technology, Frank Boahen revealed that the pitch of the Accra Stadium was left in the utterly poor state because his workers have been unpaid because of the ministry’s failure to pay their pitch maintenance fees since 2012.

“The state of the pitch is unfortunate. The workers have decided to embark on a strike for some few weeks now. I have been pleading with them but we as a company don’t have anything to pay the workers,” Boahen said.

The Black Stars could consider leaving the Accra Sports Stadium as coach Avram Grant does not want to put his players and his preparations at risk.