Learning to love the Black Stars again?
An image has just flashed in my mind. It is Tuesday, the 27th day of January 2015.
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We are about 10 minutes into the epic second half of the Ghana versus South Africa, the final round of matches that would decide the fate of all four teams in Group C of the 2015 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) Football competition and South Africa are holding on to a one goal advantage.
At this precise moment, Dede Ayew, a prince of Ghana’s football royalty, has to beat two yellow-shirted opponents to make progress; he turns neatly on the ball and the first man gives him a hard knock in his general pelvis area. Dede stumbles but manages to stay on his feet. The second opponent lunges fiercely into the Ghanaian who goes down under that illegal challenge.
Dede gets up and without as much as a sideways glance, marches away to start another battle in the epic fight for survival. It is deathly quiet in the neighbourhood; no applause for Dede and no anger at the Bafana Bafana hatchet men.
I looked at Dede and his valiant teammates fighting hard to beat the South Africans and a thought floats through my mind. The 11 men representing Ghana on the pitch are like out-of-favour lovers trying desperately to win back the affection of an estranged lover. The Black Stars opponents on the pitch were South Africans but what was at stake was the love of an entire nation.
To say that the national football team has fallen out of favour with Ghanaians is an understatement. These days the feeling of disgust and revulsion for our football representatives is palpable.
I put my prediction that the Black Stars will win the tournament on my Facebook wall and the result was very telling. Not a single friend agreed with me outright; the majority laughed in my face as if I was either out of my mind or simply out of touch.
By the time you read this, it is possible that the redeeming effect of the progress into the quarter-final may have had a positive impact on the nation’s regard for the boys, but as at this writing, it is obvious that the love affair between the Ghanaian public and our footballers has taken a wicked deflection.
This disaffection cannot all be down to the quality of football on offer. In this tournament, apart from the atrocious second half against Senegal in the first group match, the Black Stars have not been bad, but still no public support for the team.
It is true that the two goals against Bafana Bafana were greeted by cheers in the neighbourhood but the shout was no louder than the noise children make when ‘dumsor’ ends, and perhaps the joy will be as short-lived as President Mahama’s promise, which turned out to be only a prayer that ‘dumsor’ will be a thing of the past! There was no hooting of horns; no vuvuzela blasts in the air.
What has caused this break in the long love match between the national football team and the nation? Many trace it to the last World Cup in Brazil, which for Ghana turned out to be a fiasco, and more often described as a disaster. But even so, there is no specific charge against the boys.
There is a feeling that they placed their personal interests above that of the nation for insisting on their contract terms being fulfilled. Somehow, we are blaming the victims for the “crime”.
The football players negotiated payment terms with the authorities and they expected to be paid according to the terms of the contract.
We read about promises by various government officials that the team would be paid their money before the start of the tournament; indeed, we heard Vice President Amissah-Arthur repeat the promise on television. What was wrong with the players insisting on their due?
Somehow, the boys are carrying the blame for the ferrying of three million live US dollars across the Atlantic Ocean by an airplane to pay them their money.
No one has suggested that the team insisted on that particular mode of transport, and we are not privy to the terms of that particular transaction. Perhaps, the report of the Dzamefe Commission will make us a bit wiser on this, but to blame the players for that inexplicable decision is unfair and unreasonable.
Many people have said that if the Black Stars had performed well on the pitch, the fallout would not have happened. That may be true but we cannot blame the players for decisions made by their coach.
We know that Coach Kwasi Appiah said he meant to bring in some of his most experienced players from the bench after the United States (US) players got tired in the first match. How can the players be blamed for the consequences of that decision?
Furthermore, it was that amateur reasoning that started the rift between some of the “senior players” and the coach. In the aftermath of the Brazil debacle, Mr Kwasi Appiah blamed his failures on “player indiscipline”.
Whatever the cause or source of this mass anger against the team is, the Black Stars are a national football team playing without the active support of the nation. During the current AFCON tournament, there has been no display of national support or even pride.
In fact, not only is the team a collective figure of scorn but those who express open support are viewed with suspicion. It has become fashionable to parade one’s disdain for the Black Stars.
I have heard members of Parliament, leading media figures, football administrators and lots and lots of supporters say openly that they hate the Black Stars. I believe that this attitude is flawed for many reasons.
The most important is this: the Black Stars, like all our national symbols, is bigger than the sum of its individual parts. The Black Stars team is not the current or any players. It is our NATIONAL team.
Look at it this way: people may be unhappy with the performance of Members of Parliament (MPs) in this or any other Parliament but it will be unreasonable to withdraw our support for Parliament as a national institution for that reason.
It appears from comments on social media and radio that people who are unhappy about non-football situations are transferring their anger to the Black Stars. People say they cannot support the Black Stars because of ‘dumsor’; they cannot support the Black Stars because “things are hard”.
Sentiments like these may sound illogical but they amount to a questioning of patriotism when the father/motherland does not respond to their needs. There is almost a self-hating mentality at work here; I cannot love myself because no one loves me!
I believe that the national leadership has a duty to make us love the Black Stars again. Football is the passion of the nation and we ought to use it as an asset to achieve national unity and development.
If we are angry with the current players for any reason, we should not destroy the team for that reason; shall we be angry with the National Anthem if it were played out of tune at a national parade?
Anyway, it should not be difficult learning to love the Black Stars again. The display of grit and guile during the match against South Africa and the one against Algeria must convince us that the spirit of the Stars lives on in this crop of players.
I am continuing in my belief, some say misguided, that the Black Stars can lift the trophy as they did against tremendous odds in 1982.
Yes, we can learn to LOVE our team again; as the proverb goes, it is not too difficult to re-light an old flame…
