Nii Lantei Vanderpuye denies causing the NDC's defeat

Outgoing Ghana's sports minister Nii Lantei Vanderpuye has rejected accusations he caused the humiliating defeat of the ruling National Democratic Congress in December's Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

The tough-talking minister suffered misfortune after his party lost the Presidential elections but managed to retain his Parliamentary seat.

Several prognosis have been made on the cause of the defeat of the ruling party including the frosty relationship that existed between the sports ministry and the FA.

The GFA had been involved in a prolonged dispute with the ministry over issues concerning the management of national teams since Nii Lantey Vanderpuije began his reign as head of the latter in February

Essentially, the ministry has consistently voiced out frustrations at being left in the dark about several key decisions on the teams, while the FA insists the ministry's public outbursts have left much to be desired.

Several football watchers have blamed the Member of Parliament for Ododiodio for the downward spiral of the various national teams particularly the Black Stars due to his antagonistic approach towards the FA.

But he has rejected the claims.

Anybody who thinks I caused the defeat of NDC is not thinking right."he told his favourite Nhyira FM

Since Vanderpuye took over the sports ministry football has seen as sharp nosedive with the Black Stars almost unlikely to qualify for the 2014 World Cup because of his policies and antagonistic public campaign against all arms of the team including players, officials and coach.

He even refused to pay plane tickets for the players to travel to the country to play in a dead-rubber Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Rwanda which forced players to pay on their own to play for the country. It is the first time players have paid to play for their country in the modern era.

The Black Satellites failed to qualify for the Africa U20 Championship under his reign and all the women’s national teams crashing out early from key international tournaments because of his poor management of the teams’ preparations and financial matters.

Vanderpuye is widely seen as the sports minister with the most disastrous record in results while in office and some have blamed him for his government’s failure to win the general elections.

Many key supporters and leaders of his NDC government who are part of the football industry openly claimed the attitude of the minister could lead to the party’s defeat.