One James Kwabena, believed to be a member of Ghana’s delegation to Brazil for the World Cup was conspicuously missing when the entire team returned to Ghana.
Corriere Della Sera an Italian news portal reports that the Ghanaian official for inexplicable reasons missed the bus and could not make the journey from Brasilia to Netal after Ghana’s last group match against Portugal.
The Black Stars World Cup came to a sorry end after going down by two goals to one in that encounter.
Kwabena’s absence apparently went unnoticed by the Ghanaian contingent led by Kwesi Nyantakyi thus left their Macieo base with a chartered flight to Accra, the report added.
Depressed and dejected Kwabena, according to reports, has gone without food for days and has been roaming aimlessly on the streets of Brasilia on daily bases.
Corriere Della Sera reports that the stranded Ghanaian official must now cough up approximately $2,000 to able to catch a return flight to Ghana. However, attempts to reach officials of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to comment on the matter have yielded no results.
Ghana exited the World Cup after the group stage for the first time when they lost to Portugal at the Estadio Nacional in Brasilia, which all but vanquished the team’s hope of surpassing their quarter-final finish in South Africa four years ago.
But largely, it wasn’t their performance that gave them away. Neither was it the lax with which they conceded those sloppy goals that shot Ghana onto the front page of newspapers and onto various TV news headlines.
It was the off-pitch issues, the brawls, the team selection disputes, the disciplinary issues, the factions in a team that was supposed to fight as one, the farcical airlift of $3m in cash from Accra to Brasilia under the watchful eyes of the world on the eve of the team’s most important game – to satisfy a group of self-seeking patriots.
consequently, a forum of eminent football administrators has been put together by the newly appointed, Sports Minister, Mahama Ayariga to, among other things, resolve player indiscipline and other issues relating to football administration in the country.
