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SUNDAY, JUNE 29, 2014

'Curse of Zaire' blights the Black Stars

PHOTO | AFP Ghana forward and captain Asamoah Gyan celebrates after scoring against Germany during their Group G match at the Castelao Stadium in Fortaleza on June 21. They drew 2-2. AFP

In Summary

Meddling presidents micro-manage national teams while federations bungle
Downing tools over pay not new to African teams and was first seen at the 1974 finals

By Roy Gachuhi
More by this Author

African money problems at Fifa's World Cups, such as the bonuses' disputes which constituted the first Ghanaian own goal before John Boye sliced in the 31st minute heart stopper and agonizingly came close to adding a second one, follow a dubious tradition started by Zaire in 1974.

Going on strike, or threatening to do so over pay before crucial World Cup matches must now be accepted as a standard African script. It starts with officials hanging on to what is not theirs, proceeds with a boycott of crucial preparatory matches and a threat not to honour the main competition and ends with the President of the republic himself playing the role of accountant/cashier to resolve the crises.

This week, we have been treated to incredulous stories of how Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama was forced to dispatch $3 million to appease his Black Stars players who were more focused on that money than with their desperately vital Group G clash with Portugal.

The writing was on the wall: nothing short of a crushing Ghanaian win could save them from an early exit. Even then, they would still have had to hope for another emphatic victory for Germany over USA. But apparently, that's not what was on the players' mind. It was their unpaid dues.

Therefore, they grounded all preparations for the match and only the Fan-in-Chief himself had sufficient clout to move them. That's where the emergency airlift of all those dollars from Ghana to Brazil came in. But more about that later.

PERSUADED TO TURN UP

In 1974, the Leopards of Zaire became the first sub-Saharan nation to represent Africa at the World Cup. They carried high hopes for all. But in the end, they lost first, 2-0 to Scotland, then 9-0 to Yugoslavia and finally 3-0 to Brazil. Fifa determined who among the three victors would proceed by looking at who had scored the most goals against the Leopards.

That's how Brazil and Yugoslavia went through. Before the Yugoslavia match, Zaire threatened not to play. Why? The money promised them had not been paid.

Zoran Vidinic, their Yugoslav coach, was a convenient scapegoat from Zairean officials who were trying to deflect players' accusations that they had pocketed all the money meant for them.

Mwepu Ilunga, a defender and star player, who like most others, later ended up in absolute misery, said in an interview with BBC: "Before the Yugoslavia match we learnt that we were not going to be paid, so we refused to play. But at the last moment we were persuaded to turn up for the encounter." Not surprisingly, their hearts were not in it and the result was that infamous debacle.

The method used for persuasion was bone-chilling: Mobutu Sese Seko, the Zairean dictator who had generously bankrolled the team to that high pedestal, reportedly sent his guards to confine the players in their hotel and warn them that a 4-0 loss to Brazil would result in their being barred from returning home. Why 4-0, nobody knows. But they mercifully avoided it.

The way forward for African World Cup football campaigns had been firmly established.

Before the current World Cup started, Cameroon's players waited until the moment they were to leave their hotel rooms for the airport so as to fly to Brazil – then they balked.

It took the intervention – you guessed right – of President Paul Biya to convince them board their chartered plane and go fight for Africa and Cameroon. The issue was money.

In fact, they had refused to accept their country's flag from the Prime Minister – a time honoured tradition in African sports before all major tournaments – and defiantly told officials to first pay or else. Reuters quoted an open letter to the Cameroonian people signed by team captain Samuel Eto'o saying the players' action "was a search for improvements that will benefit future generations.

I fought for what I believe to be legitimate: the right of my team mates for their bonuses so that they can give the best of themselves for their country.

There have been misunderstandings, certainly. However, we are satisfied with a happy end. We hope that all those who were offended by our insistence are able to forgive us." A stalemate that needed presidential intervention was still not so big as to embarrass officials; they are used to it and have become schooled in the art of putting a straight face on a problem that had got organizers worried.

Joseph Owona, president of the Cameroon Football Federation, even had the cheek to congratulate himself: "Everything has been resolved," he crowed. "We have opted for transparency. There is no problem and I think the team needs to be mobilized for all to look in one direction." We now all know how the once universally revered Indomitable Lions performed in their group before heading home.

Nigeria remain in the tournament after officials somehow managed to smooth over the money problems with their players.

A high ranking government official visited the team's training quarters on a mediation mission between players and federation officials as rows over bonuses, which hamstrung the Super Eagles participation in the Confederations Cup last year, resurfaced after their qualification into the Round of 16.

Nigeria play France Sunday and few doubt that overhauling Les Blues will be a tall order, given the current form and cohesion of the 1998 champions.

They were all drama before the Confederations Cup last year. It was the World Cup's test run tournament. First they delayed their arrival as players haggled for their money.

Then upon getting to Brazil, they refused to leave their hotel before everything was settled. Now the Nigerian Football Federation has announced a bonuses structure has been agreed to with the players starting with their match against France.

If they beat France, NFF said, the players will pocket $12,500 each. Don't take that to the bank. For years, Ghana were the example of order and stability in management in so far as football matters were concerned.

Now they have banished that reputation in a spectacular way. Imagine a country announcing that it is ferrying cash to its sulking players a continent away. And not little cash, millions of it. What happened? Before Ghana played Portugal, there were reports of rumbling in the team's quarters. Reports even suggested that the players were threatening a no-show against the Portuguese. And the problem was money.

The Ghanaian deputy sports minister, Joseph Yammin, then dramatically announced that about $3 million would be flown to Brazil to calm the restless players.

African television commentators, especially South African ones, had a ball dissecting the news. The question arose about how they could freight that kind of money into Brazil without paying tax on it.

Brazil's federal tax agency released a statement saying $4,500 was the limit anybody could bring into the country without being subject to tax laws. Anything above that attracted tax and nobody was exempt – and that included the illustrious Black Stars.

People have their peculiarities; Kenyans overload the mobile telephone system on Friday afternoons and run amok in cities when it rains even mildly. Why was it necessary to undertake the operation of freighting hard cash on a plane to placate their restive players when they could have just tapped a button written 'send'?

MILD MANNERED COACH

Kwesi Appiah, the mild mannered coach of the Black Stars, let us in on it. He said: "Players aren't paid by electronic transfer because 'the practice in Ghana has always been paying the money in cash." In other words, they don't use Mpesa. Appiah declined to say how much the players were owed because "I would be a bad person. The players would kill me if I said."

But the Associated Press reported that the players had been promised between $75,000 and $100,000 each for playing at the World Cup. The Ghana Football Association also released a statement saying that President Mahama "personally spoke to the players" to assure them that they would be paid before the Portugal game.

"President Mahama waded into the matter after agitation from the Black Stars players over their appearance fees for the World Cup which has not been paid since the start of the competition," the GFA said. The statement added that the president's intervention had "brought some assurance to the Black Stars."

It was difficult to escape the image of a worried accountant calmly trying to reassure a skeptical supplier that his money would indeed be paid, very soon, give us until Wednesday, but meanwhile, please, please make that delivery, I beg you.

That the Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria are now travelling the road built by Zaire in 1974 and showing little shame for it is a sad commentary of where Africa is and where it should be.

Just why must this happen? Who does not know that a Nation's Cup takes place every two years and a World Cup every four? Why should these events take anybody by surprise? And pray, why should the President micro-manage the accounts? It's such a big, big shame.