Former
Ghana Football Association (GFA) vice-president, George Afriyie believes
call-ups to the nation’s various national teams are highly influenced by
external entities for selfish reasons.
Criteria for selection of players for national
duty have been a long-standing topic, amid several bribery and corruption
allegations. Among the theories, many believe, selections are also influenced
by top-ranking FA officials associated with some major clubs in the country.
This month’s announcement of U-20, U-23 and
Black Stars B rosters for the African Games, the 2020 Olympic Games qualifiers
and the 2020 African Nations Championship qualifiers, respectively, were no
exception.
“The things that we see in our football
today, we shouldn’t pretend people would just want to give money to certain
journalists to hype players so that they get called up to the national teams
[without reason]
meanwhile they [players] cannot perform. These things must
stop,” Afriyie told Happy FM.
“Everybody must understand that Tamale City
FC and Ebusua Dwarfs FC players can also play for the national teams. Can’t you
see the recent call-up?
“People are just working for their selfish
interest, not for the interest of the country or the football in this country.
If we did same, by this time, we would be billionaires.
“Invitations to the national teams are a
complete joke because previously, if coaches invited players, management
subjects the list to scrutiny and you have to justify why you called a certain
player and not any other player.”
Arguably, the biggest national team bribery
scandal remains an incident in 2009, when winger Ishmael Yartey publicly
accused Ghana U-20 coach Sellas Tetteh of omitting him from the final squad for
the FIFA U-20 World Cup year for his failure to pay a bribe.
