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SUNDAY, JUNE 29, 2014

Can pay, won't pay: Inept officials to blame for forcing players on the ropes

PHOTO | AFP Ghana forward Kevin-Prince Boateng during their Group G match against Germany at the Castelao Stadium in Fortaleza on June 21. The Ghana Football Association expelled him from the World Cup over disciplinary issues. AFP

In Summary

Ghana's fiasco in Brazil illustrates incompetence of African federations
Football is an extremely lucrative affair and when it comes to international competition, it is the fat cats in federations who eat all the cream. In this World Cup alone, Fifa will earn $4 billion (about Sh352 billion) in revenue, a sum that could build 10 Thika super-highways.

By Murithi Mutiga
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Much criticism has been piled on African teams at the World Cup for their demands to be paid bonuses before setting foot on the field of play.

The censure of the players is unfair. Football is an extremely lucrative affair and when it comes to international competition, it is the fat cats in federations who eat all the cream. In this World Cup alone, Fifa will earn $4 billion (about Sh352 billion) in revenue, a sum that could build 10 Thika super-highways.

It will share a bit of this loot with the federations. Each country taking part in the World Cup will receive $8 million (Sh696 million) at the end of the tournament.

Before kick-off, moreover, federation officials are paid $1.2 million (Sh103 million) to cater for expenses during the tournament. Now, say you are a Cameroonian player struggling to earn your keep in some cold Eastern European country. The World Cup is a great opportunity to showcase your talents, true, and it may mean that you could earn a lucrative move to a better league.

You also love your country, of course, but your elites at home are not famous for doing what is in the national interest.

Your president, Paul Biya, 80, is rarely ever seen in public, has clung to power for 32 years and the only charismatic thing about him is his colourful second wife, Chantelle, with whom he takes lavish holidays in the south of France.

Yes, you are supposed to love your country, but the elite show that it is more important to love yourself first.

Why should you put the nation before the stomach if your leaders don't? Captain Samuel Eto'o appreciates that not all the players are multi-millionaires like him and was right to insist that they should be paid their money before boarding the plane.

If African federation officials don't want these embarrassments and if they are keen on seeing teams from the continent perform well, then they should learn to take proper care of players.

Fans who have followed the World Cup for some time will know that the Cameroonian federation is notorious for not meeting its end of the bargain where player allowances are concerned.

Cameroon took the World Cup by storm in 1990 and it was expected they would perform better in 1994. But the fellows in the federation wanted the players to slave on the pitch out of patriotism without paying them their dues.

The players had other ideas and decided to do no such thing, allowing themselves to be thrashed 6-1 by the Russians. True, it's not a very pleasant situation but then why should the federation officials enjoy the labour of the players while elbowing them from the eating table?

The breakdown in levels of trust between football officials and players was illustrated by the fiasco surrounding the payment of Ghana's allowances. If you owe me some money and I insist that you pay in cash rather than M-Pesa that simply means I trust you as much as a goat does a butchery owner.

Ghana's officials had insisted for weeks that they would settle the players' allowances before the tournament.

No pay was forthcoming. Matters came to a head in training last week. The players wanted their money and they wanted it now. Okay, we will transfer it into your bank accounts, officials promised and the President, John Mahama, called the captain Asamoah Gyan and made the assurance that the money would soon be deposited.

No, the players insisted, pay us in cash. Sulley Muntari and Kevin-Prince Boateng were suspended for wrangling with federation officials. That shows how little the players take the word of their leaders and there must be a reason for this.

HIJACKED THE PLANE

So it was that Ghana chartered a plane with $3 million (Sh261 million) on board and the image of police vehicles with loud sirens tearing through the streets ferrying the cash was big news in Brazil. (Someone suggested it would have been a finer story if some characters had hijacked the plane and taken off with the money).

Yes, it is not a pretty picture but I would say that the crisis reflects not the greed of the players but the ineptness of the federations. One should love their country and be proud to don the national colours. But the relationship should be a two-way street and federation officials, who have to be forced to pay players by frequent strikes whenever their national team has a match lined up, should learn to meet their end of the bargain.

Fifa, one of the world's least accountable organisations, sits on a gold mine created by the passion of football fans around the world and the talent of players.

Its affiliates in Africa should pick a trick from others around the world and learn not to eat everything and to share the spoils with the players.

If the complaint is that Fifa pays the appearance fees after the World Cup and not before, then federations should use their own funds to settle player allowances and then recoup this once Fifa settles.

It is embarrassing that every tournament brings a crisis among African teams on the payment front, but it is not something the players bear any responsibility for.