The Ghana Football Association suspended Sulley Muntari and Kevin-Prince Boateng indefinitely for a violent attack and vulgar verbals insults respectively. The Ghana squad had nearly been in open rebellion in a dispute over unpaid bonuses that had to be chartered over from Ghana in cash in order to appease the players.
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This is the latest in a series of embarrassing incidents for African FAs in international play that usually involve the lack of bonuses or disputes over cash. The Cameroon squad had even threatened to boycott this World Cup over unpaid bonuses before the tournament even started and they played like a side that did not want to be there. Ghana will hope to look past this and still try to qualify for the next round.
A statement from the Ghana Football Association said:
"“The GFA has suspended Sulley Ali Muntari indefinitely from the Black Stars with immediate effect.The decision was taken in the wake of his unprovoked physical attack on an executive committee member of the GFA and a management member of the Black Stars, Mr Moses Armah on Tuesday 24th June, 2014 during a meeting.The GFA has approved coach Kwesi Appiah’s decision to suspend Kevin-Prince Boateng indefinitely from the Black Stars.The decision was taken following Boateng’s vulgar verbal insults targeted at coach Kwesi Appiah during the team’s training session in Maceio this week.Boateng has since showed no remorse for his actions which has resulted in the decision.”Source: Sky Sports"
This situation is unfortunately more of the same for the African FAs that often have to deal with budget and resource challenges that European teams do not. The players should also be more understanding of the situation but at the end of the day for many of them this is more of a job than a civic duty for their country.
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