As usual, All African teams have exited the field of the worldwide competition at the turn of the quarter finals. We’ll never stop denouncing the lack of organization and coordination which always disqualify African teams at early stage of the World Soccer game.
However, more than anything, and beyond any problem embedded in performance deficiency on the field, it’s the cesspool of corruption, the show-me-the money politics, displayed by all African Nations with almost no exception which is heart-breaking, and disconcerting. Apart from the obvious lack of coordination and cohesion that we all observed on the field, the ugliest parts happened behind the curtain, inside locker rooms, and behind hotel doors.
Cameroonian team and staff have been fighting in the early stage of the preparation of the worldwide competition. Things did not get better on the eve of the competition. There have been infighting, pushing and shoving during the flight to Brazil. Even after their disqualification, the infighting never stopped. Inside the hotel room, things have gotten physical between the president of Cameroon Football Federation president and the Minister in charge of sport about which department is most eligible to manage what was left of the fund voted for this 2014 World Cup.
For Nigerian team the fight about stipends and got so depressing that the team had missed an important training session on Thursday 26 June, that is almost a week prior to the crucial clash between the team and Argentina. To save the day, the secretary of the Nigerian Football Association had been sent to Abuja to get fund that had been voted to support the competition for Nigeria.
Things were not better on Ivorian side. From the shoveling between the Drogba’s team and the government about the amount of their paychecks, and the fight between Drogba and fellow team members for the return of captain’s arm band, other corruption scandals have hampered the effort of the Elephants to progress in this cup.
The last, but not the least of lack of governing and planning had been observed with the Black Stars staff and Ghanaian Government. The lack of clarity and transparency in the awarding of the bounty has caused Boateng, to swing against staff members, and Muntari to verbally attacked them, a situation which have caused both to be expelled from the team on the eve of Ghana-Portugal.
If you think you’ve seen the worst scandal, prepare to be disappointed: the greatest of all scandals was when Ghanaian government had loaded $ 3.2 Million hard cash on a plane, paid about $ 500.000 in tax, and flew the emergency plane from Ghana to Brazil to avoid players walking out of the field, on the day of Ghana-Portugal.
Soccer demands rigorous and relentless effort. You can’t wait for the last moment and start throwing money at the problem. We can see clearly here that the disease of corruption and bad governing practiced by Mafia bosses like Faure Gnassingbe, (let’s not forget the Togolese scandal of Germany 2006) Paul Biya, Allasane Ouattara, Johnatan Goodluck, and others has infiltrated sport. Money embezzlement, corruption and influence peddling, from the political arena, have permeated the sport arena. When the macrocosm of bad politics sneezes, the microcosm of soccer catches cough.
There is this biblical wisdom which says that one cannot rip where one did not sow. It’s more than fair that when African officials never sow in the national pride, in soccer and other things, when they embezzle people’s money and sow only in bunga bunga parties, and in high jinks, when the only invest in fancy cars, and high-end apartments in Europe and elsewhere, they shouldn’t expect to harvest on soccer field. It’s that simple!
Koffi Apati-Bassah
New-York
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