Isaac Asante
to miss Okwawu's next match
(A commentary by William Dodzi Ezah of GNA Sports)
Accra (Greater Accra) 18 April 2002 - 16 April 2002 will forever remain an unforgetable day in the life of Samuel Osei-Kuffour after he had failed to win African player of the year 2001 at the CAF awards night held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Not even the pains he went through in 1999, when Manchester United scored two goals in the dying minute in the finals of UEFA champions league against his team Bayern Munch can be compared to what he went through on April 16.
When the Confederation of African Football came out with the list of nominees for the African player of the year and a subsequent short list of three players including Ghana's Samuel Osei-Kuffour, many football connoisseurs and analysts quickly predicted the Ghanaian was in a pole position to win the award.
The Bayern Munich defender competed with Lens and Senegalese International El Hadji Diouf and Real Majorca and Cameroonian International Samuel Eto'o Fils and seemed to have enjoyed much media campaign than any of the other two candidates yet failed to win the vital votes.
Even before the awards many thought Kuffour's victory is a foregone conclusion hence he was given a rousing welcome on his arrival in South Africa. Therefore his failure to win the award will certainly have a psychological effect on him.
Reports from South Africa indicated that the Ghanaian defender was dumb founded and wept bitterly that night but at the end of the day he decided to give glory to God to be able to concentrate on the future.
Taking a critical look at Diouf and Kuffour one could say that Kuffour drew much of his strength from Europe as he contributed immensely to the success of Bayern Munich last year, helping them to win the German Cup, Bundesliga on many occasions, UEFA champions League and the World Club Cup Championship against River plates of Argentina where he scored the winning goal.
Kuffour's consistency in the German and the UEFA Champions league is incomparable to any other African player in recent times as he was also among the nominees for the European player of the year last season. On the local front, Kuffour 's contributions to Ghana at the Junior level has been tremendous but has failed to make any meaningful impact with the senior national team, the Black Stars.
Kuffour who started playing for the Black Stars in 1995 has failed to help the team win the African Cup as Ghana has laboured for this honour for the past 12 years without any success.
The failure of Ghana to qualify for the World Cup on so many occasions also served as minus to his ambition as his contribution to Ghana's attempts towards France 98 and Japan/Korea 2002 has not seen his nation fulfilling her long cherished dream of making it to the World Cup.
On the other hand Diouf stormed the African Football scene with surprise because little was known about him on the continent as compared to Kuffour. Despite this, he managed to spearhead Senegal to her first historic World Cup in Japan/Korea 2002.
He played a major role to ensure his country's qualification to the World Cup from a crack group comprising Egypt and Morocco scoring two hat-tricks in the country's road to Japan/Korea.
On the European scene, not much has been heard of the Senegalese, his performance in the French league does not make enough impact as compared to Kuffour in the German league. From these arguments, it can be deduced that Osei-Kuffour's inability to win the award might be largely be due to his little impact on the African Continent.
His desire to equal the feats of Ghana's greats like Ibrahim Sunday, Abdul Razak and Abedi Pele Ayew has failed to materailised even though he was highly tipped to do it. After achieving so much with his club Bayern Munch, Kuffour's dream of crowning it with the highest award in African football has fallen on the rocks.
It would also be noted that, this is the second time Kuffour is missing this award He suffered the same fate in 2000 when Nigeria's Kanu Nwankwo beat him to the second place to win the prestigious award.
The Ghanaian can be said to be in the greatest shock of his life after the announcement. Not him alone but the likes of Ben Koufie, the GFA chairman, Mr Edward Osei-Kweku, Minster of Youth and Sports and Journalists from Ghana and other countries who attended the Programme were highly disappointed.
All said and done the adage, which says the downfall of a man is not the end of his life is what Kuffour must take consolation in and concentrate on the future. Well, who knows, he might be third time lucky next year. Kuffour himself has said that this is not the end of the World adding that if it is the wish of God, he should win the award one day.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra
(Greater Accra) 18 April 2002 - Kwabena Yeboah, Editor of the private bi-weekly
‘Africa Sports’ could not fathom what was happening in the CAF Awards nite in
Johannesburg on 16 April 2002 as he watched Sammy Kuffour shockingly lose
Africa’s football best individual prize. Back in Accra he could not contain what
he saw and heard, bursting out in a favourite column:
For
heaven’s sake Issa Hayatou and his cronies on the Confederation of Africa
Football (CAF) must have a modicum of respect for fairplay, justice and
credibility. Anyway, what does FIFA’s continued sermon on fairplay and
transparency mean to CAF’s executive? Total noise in the ear I believe so.
Let’s get
this straight: Issa Hayatou and his men wish to tell Africa and the rest of the
world that Senegalese star El Hadj Abdou Diouf deserves to be Africa best
player for 2001? God bless them all! Yes, I’m not only shocked disappointed and
irked by CAF’s decision. I feel scandalised and justifiably angry at the kind
of thievery that went on at the Sandton Convention Centre where CAF unashamedly
robbed Samuel Osei Kufuor of what was due him.
Don’t get
me wrong. I’m not mad because Diouf managed to pull a fast one on Kufour. Far
from that. In sports, it’s bad to be a bad loser and in every competition, it
is inevitable that there will be winners and losers. And if FIFA’s regular
sermon on fairplay has any meaning to us, we must all learn to be good losers.
Clearly,
therefore, my beef isn’t with the fact that Diouf simply won. Football being
what it is, we are bound to have divergent opinions on issues. At worst
therefore, we agree to disagree. Folks, my source of anger is with the fact
that there was pure stealing Tuesday 16 April 2002 in Johannesburg. What are
the facts from fiction?
The voting
for the CAF Footballer of the Year 2001 ended in December 2001. This was
confirmed by Emmanuel Maradas, a member of the CAF media committee and managing
editor of the most authoritative African Soccer magazine, who was present at
the ceremony. One of the three MC’s for the night and a core operative at CAF
confirmed to me before the evening that CAF’s top brass had altered Kuffour’s
award hours before the ceremony.
As at noon
last Tuesday Kuffour was still the winner until CAF’s mafia pulled late strings
to change it all. Now this is the evidence. The Sowetan, a leading South
African newspaper and one of the sponsors of the event had received
confirmation the morning of event that Kuffour was the winner. They had
subsequently proceeded to interview him while CAF itself made available the
Footballer of the Year trophy.
The Sowetan
had decided to take those pictures on time for their Wednesday edition because
they could not actually wait for the CAF event which was a late night event and
therefore, difficult to be captured for early Wednesday morning. (The event
ended past midnight).
Point No.
2: Hayatou had sent for Kuffour earlier in the day and congratulated him for
winning CAF’s most prestigious award, sharing jokes with him. Kuffour himself
will confirm this.
Point No.
3: Before the event, CAF had indicated that they did not want their topmost
award winner to be absent on the night. They had therefore sent three dates to
Kuffour to pick a suitable one to ensure he was present. None of this was done
for El Hadj Diouf and E’to Fils.
Now brace
yourself for more shocking revelations: An inside source at CAF confirmed to me
before the programme commenced, approaches had been CAF “top shots” to join
them alter the winner for “good reasons”. The source opposed the move with
vehemence. Later these “mafiamen” tried to come out with a joint winner, which
was again resisted. It was explained that having failed to convince others to
go along with them, the mafia proceeded to effect the change despite the
dangers and consequences of their actions; what it meant for their credibility
and image, even as Hayatou himself intensified his campaign for the FIFA top
shot.
Now can we
think aloud? The year under review as you might be all too familiar with say
Kuffour aid Bayern Munich, one of the leading clubs in the world win the bundesliga,
the European championship, which is the world’s ultimate club competition as
well as the world Super Cup in Japan. He was the only African in a list of 50
best players of Europe for 2001 put together by a cream of world journalists.
What else should a man do? Win the world championship on moon?
With no
disrespect for Diouf, exactly what were his highpoints of achievement? That he
aided Senegal qualify for World Cup? Come on (apologies to Kweku Baako Jnr)
tell me something more convincing, other than qualify for the world cup. They
have not yet been to the World Cup and made an impact, they have only qualified
alongside 32 other contestants.
Now
somebody better tell me – what did Senegal do that Tunisia, South Africa,
Cameroon and Nigeria did not do to qualify for the World Cup? CAF simply can’t
be serious. As somebody remarked at the Convention Centre last Tuesday, if
Hayatou would supervise such thievery and wretchedness at CAF, what business
has he got to infect FIFA with such decadence? The mess would first have to be
cleared at home, with all due respect, sir!
GRi…/
Send your
comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra) 18April 2002 - Isaac Asante of Okwawu United would miss his club's next game against Suhum Maxbees in a third week match of the on going premier league scheduled for Sunday. In a release signed by Mr Kwaku Ampem-Darko, Deputy General Secretary (Technical), the player would be ineligible because he was expelled from their second week match against B.A. United for a second cautionable offence.
He said Asante would miss two matches including the second week match in which he was expelled and his club would pay a fine of 100,000 cedis. Mr. Ampen-Darko said the player would remain unqualified if his club fails to pay the fine after his suspension.
Information gathered by the GNA Sports indicates that as at Wednesday April 17 only three match reports have got to the F.A. contrary to an earlier directive that match reports must be filed early enough to enable the GFA to furnish teams with the status of their players.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com