The Special Aide to the minister of Youth and Sports, Kofi Asare Brako has thrown a jab at the value of work done by former Black Stars coach James Kwasi by qualifying the nation to the Egypt 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
Kwasi Appiah guided Ghana to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations staged in Egypt in June last year, where Ghana emerged winners of group F which comprised of Kenya, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Ethiopia in the qualifiers. Ghana topped the group with 9 points, won three of the four matches played with a loss away to Kenya, after CAF disqualified Sierra Leone from the qualifiers with all results of their matches annulled following FIFA’s suspension of the Sierra Leone Football Association.
Ghana’s hope of winning the AFCON trophy for the first time since 1982 was dashed after suffering a shocking early exit from the tournament in the round of sixteen to Tunisia on penalties after drawing 1 all after extra time.
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) decided to part ways with the Black Stars coach James Kwasi Appiah in January this year, following the expiration of his contract with the FA on December 31 last year. However, the FA, through the Ministry of Youth and Sports (responsible for paying salaries of national team coaches) has not honoured payments of five months salary including winning bonuses owed coach Kwasi Appiah, and the latter has threatened to drag the matter to FIFA to seek redress due to neglect for his demand notices to the FA and the Sports ministry.
Addressing the issue in an interview with Nhyira FM, Special Aide to the Sports Minister, Kofi Asare Brako admonished Kwasi Appiah to rather show gratitude to the FA and the sector Ministry for honouring him with the Black Stars coaching job, instead of threatening to take the delay of payment of monies owed him to external bodies. In a much more deeper blast, Brako belittled the ability to qualify Ghana to a tournament from a group made of countries like Sierra Leone, Kenya and Ethiopia, saying, that is a cheap task for even an ordinary person who is not a coach, like the journalist interviewing him can do with ease.
“Kwasi Appiah should be patient with us we will pay him”, Asare Brako told Nhyira Sports. “Qualifying Ghana to the AFCON as stipulated in his contract, Ghana we were in a group with Kenya, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. Papa, I tell you that two teams qualifying from this group, if it were to be even you (mentions the name of the interviewer) as the head coach of the Black Stars, and you are playing against Ethiopia, Kenya and Sierra Leone, with two teams to qualify, like Ghana will surely be one of the teams to qualify from that group. So it’s not any huge achievement that you behave as if you’ve achieved something so huge, like a group comprising of Egypt, Nigeria and Cameroon were in with Ghana that two teams were to qualify”, he yelled.
