The world cup presidential commission's report – what are the expectations?

The Justice Dzamefe Commission which was set up to investigate and expose the facts and causes of the abysmal performance of the Black Stars in Brazil and make appropriate recommendations has finished its work. According to the Commission, they are waiting for clearance from the Presidency to present their report. While Ghanaians wait for the report to be presented, a lot of concerns have been raised as to what the focus of the report will be and its subsequent recommendations. In an interview with football enthusiasts, sports journalists and observers of the Commission's proceedings, some serious concerns were raised with regards to the contents of the yet to be presented report, which this writer intends to share with readers.

Will the report focus on the issue of supporters' welfare, which is important but a peripheral matter anyway? "I don't expect the Commission to focus too much on the supporters but the truth about what happened to them must be told. I was in Brazil and I saw the decent accommodation facilities in which the supporters were hosted, this reality must be highlighted in the report in order to dispel the false stories about the facilities at the camp", a sports journalist told this writer.

Another concern raised is the issue of the conduct of the various committees set up by the Ministry of Youth and Sports to help organize the World Cup. Will the Commission heavily rely on the little flaws that occurred through no fault the committee members? Unlike 2006 and 2010, there was no seed money for the 2014 World Cup preparation. The committee worked tirelessly and sometimes without remuneration. Will the Commission's report recognize the significant role played by the committee to raise funds to send supporters to Brazil or focus on the few problems which occurred through no fault of theirs?

What will the Commission’s report say about the case of accountability by the GFA officials? A seasoned sports journalist asked, "what will the Commission say about the testimony of the GFA President in which he admitted that he received and disbursed over USD$ 500,000 through a certain coefficient formula without any of the beneficiaries signing for what they received"? We live to see.

A lot of Ghanaians are of the hope that the Commission's report will tackle the causes of the embarrassment in Brazil from its deepest root. But the question on the minds of a lot of Ghanaians, is what actually accounted for the humiliation that the team suffered at the Brazil World Cup in 2014? I will address that question with solid, verifiable and concrete facts.

A lot of literature and commentary have been made by Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians about the actual cause(s) of the poor performance of the senior national team, the Black Stars in the 2014 World Cup. While some have heaped blame on the Sports Ministry, others have castigated the Ghana Football Association (GFA). The players have also had a fair share of the blame. Most of these comments have been made either maliciously or without looking holistically at the chain of events that led to our early exit from the tournament. We owe our nation a duty to sieve through the tons of information we were fed from Brazil by different reporters, pundits and journalists from several angles with varied interests. Some of the reports were outright lies whiles others were heavily twisted. The true picture has to be painted not for the benefit of any individual, but to guide us in future.

One can easily recall that the biggest threat and potential scandal in the World Cup was the apparent threat by the Black Star players not to train for and play the last group match against Portugal until their appearance fees were paid in cash. This whole appearance fee saga started right here from Ghana. The sequence of events pointed to a potential impasse but all the warning signs were ignored by those who control the nation's purse. The facts of the matter are as follows:

1. The Ministry of Youth and Sports together with the GFA presented a budget of $100,000 as the players' appearance fees to Cabinet. After several deliberations, Cabinet approved $82,500. This figure was subsequently communicated to the playing body in Serbia and Montenegro by two presidential staffers. The players totally rejected the Cabinet figure and insisted on taking $100,000. The meeting ended in a deadlock. When the team went to the United States of America, the issue was further discussed and the team stuck to their initial demand. The appearance fee matter remained unresolved and inconclusive until the team flew to Brazil and the tournament started.

2. After the first group game with the United States, there were increasing agitations from the team for their appearance fees to be paid. Their earlier demand for $100,000 had not changed. The Sports Minister did not have the powers to change a Cabinet decision so those who blamed him were making a flawed argument. However, the Vice President of the Republic, who occupies a superior office with a higher authority, intervened and approved the $100,000 for the players. He announced the decision to the team during one of their training sessions.

3. The initial arrangement was for UniBank to transfer the money unto the international Visa cards of the players. By the time our second impressive group match with Germany was over, the money had still not been paid despite numerous assurances from government. The players now got suspicious of officialdom and demanded to be paid in cash instead of electronic transfer. This posed another complex challenge - flying the money from Ghana to Brazil.

4. Back home in Ghana, the then Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports threw caution to the wind and announced on radio that the money was ready in a plane waiting at the airport to fly to Brazil. That singular unguarded comment led to a lot of media frenzy which attracted international publicity and exposed the country to ridicule. The details of how the flight was unduly delayed for more than three (3) days is a story for another day. Eventually, the money was flown to Brazil.

5. At the time that all the arrangements were being made to fly the money from Ghana to Brazil, the player revolt in camp continued unabated. All attempts to get the players to train before the last group game failed. They even defied the President of the Republic who called and spoke to some senior players on phone. In the end, they refused to train, an action which attracted the wrath of FIFA. The money subsequently arrived in Brazil and each player was this paid $100,000 CASH! Some of them were caught on camera kissing their appearance fee amidst jubilations. Of course, the team performed poorly in the last group game against Portugal who were already on their way out of the tournament. It is amazing that Ghanaians were expecting a decent result after the players refused to train and rather sat all night waiting for the money to arrive.

These are the incontrovertible facts and chronicle of events that caused our woes in Brazil. The Justice Dzamefe Commission MUST mince no words in capturing these matters in their report. One may argue that Ghana could have been spared all the international embarrassment if Cabinet had given the players what they demanded right from the initial stages. Another may also argue that the players could have accepted the offer from Cabinet and play for glory. Whichever way it is, the fact of the matter is that the subject of appearance fees was responsible for our World Cup disaster. The Commission MUST also include the abhorrent incidence of player indiscipline in all this saga. If only the players had shown a little respect to the nation, we would have been telling a different story today.

There is a lot of whispering in the sports fraternity which points to the anticipation of a report that will focus on the very germane causes of the problems we encountered in Brazil. Every effort should be made to avoid any over emphasis on peripheral, tangential and less important subjects. The report must address the core challenges and causes of the inability of the Black Stars to shine in Brazil. Any attempt at victimizing and picking on a few people as scape goats will only result in scratching the surface of the problem.

All the three (3) members of the Commission, the Government, the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Sports Writers, Presenters, Commentators and most stakeholders in the sports community are fully aware that player agitation, indiscipline and revolt were the major causes of our poor showing in Brazil. As to whether the Commission will boldly call a spade a spade is another matter, especially, when you take into consideration, the way and manner in which the players were treated with kid gloves at the Commission's sittings, whiles the tournament organizers were vigorously cross-examined with hard-hitting questions.

We wait to read, dissect and interrogate the Justice Senyo Dzamefe World Cup Presidential Commission report. The facts need to be underlined and highlighted without fear or favour. Ghana must win in this matter. I rest my case, only for now!

I remain yours truly,

OSAGYEFO KWAME FRIMPONG
(+233) 0574950674
(osagyefokp@gmail.com)