We aren't going anywhere - Appiah, Nyantakyi declare

The coach of the Black Stars, Kwasi Appiah, will stay put at the helm of affairs after the Ghana Football Association’s (GFA’s) Executive Committee gave him the nod of approval after the committee had met yesterday to review Ghana’s disappointing World Cup campaign in Brazil.

Despite calls by some agitated fans for the coach’s dismissal following Ghana’s worst World Cup performance, Coach Appiah told a press conference that he would not resign his job, while the GFA President, Kwesi Nyantakyi, refused to step down as FA boss and head of the Black Stars Management Committee, insisting that those who wanted to see his back must wait until the football body went for elections next year.

Even before the World Cup, the FA had hinted it would renew Appiah’s contract for another two-year term, irrespective of Ghana’s performance in Brazil, and yesterday the FA’s powerful executive committee gave the coach another endorsement, with a target to win the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

At a post-tournament press briefing held at the Alisa Hotel in Accra yesterday, the nation’s football chief confirmed that Ghana’s World Cup campaign had been undermined by the insistence of the players to be paid an appearance fee of $100,000 in hard cash, instead of the FA’s offer of $82,500 to be paid into personal bank accounts established by uniBank, the team’s official bank.

He explained that unlike Ghana’s two previous World Cup campaigns in which the FA and the players had reached an agreement on appearance fees ahead of the tournaments, negotiations for this year’s tournament had remained deadlocked until last week when President John Dramani Mahama stepped in, agreed to the players’ demands and ordered that $3 million be flown to Brazil at the height of player agitation in camp. 

At the height of the revolt in camp, when the players boycotted training until they were paid their money, Mr Nyantakyi said, he had made a request to FIFA for a $2.3 million bailout, noting that the world football governing body agreed to the request but insisted on paying the players through their accounts only after the FA had furnished FIFA with the FA’s contracts with the players.

 However, that intervention fell through, as the players insisted on receiving cash, much against FIFA rules.

“The players and the FA began negotiations in Podgorica in March after our friendly with Montenegro, at which the FA proposed $82,500, being a 10 per cent increment over the previous appearance fees, but it ended in a deadlock, as the players insisted on being paid $100,000. 

“The stalemate continued in Amsterdam, after which we considered a top up, and after discussions with the Minister of Youth and Sports, the government agreed to the players’ demands,” the FA President said.

Mr Nyantakyi announced that following the challenges encountered in Brazil over the payment of appearance fees and other bonuses to players, the FA’s Executive Committee had resolved to review its compensation management and incorporate it into a new code of conduct and performance contracts with the players.  

“From our experience in Brazil, we will have to take a second look at the practice and also ascertain if that practice is sustainable,” he said, adding that as part of conditions for inviting players, performance contracts must be signed which indicated the mode of payment of bonuses and those who did not agree with the system might have to opt out of the team.

Although he refused to be drawn into the controversy generated after the government had airlifted $3 million to Brazil to settle the players’ appearance fees, the FA President admitted that despite the associated risks, the practice was not a novelty, as the FA had paid players in cash since Ghana’s maiden World Cup participation in 2006.

“Since 2006, we have been flying money to pay for the appearance fees of Black Stars players. We did so in Germany 2006, and in South Africa 2010 we paid cash to the players as appearance fees,” he explained.

The FA boss gave an assurance that the $3 million advanced to the team by the government would be paid back after the FA had received its appearance fee from FIFA. 

He explained that since FIFA paid appearance fees to football federations at the end of the tournament, the government of Ghana only advanced money to the players through the GFA, which would later reimburse the state upon receipt of its money from FIFA.

According to the FA President, in spite of the rules and regulations on how to deal with indisciplined players, others would still be caught in the web.

“It is how you handle indisciplined players that matter. This is because indiscipline is infectious and if it is not amputated, it is likely to infect others,” he said.