Abedi Ayew Pele, skipper of the Black Stars, was due to arrive last night from Germany to lead the team against Gabon in the World in the World Cup group qualifying match at the Accra Sport Stadium on Sunday. Announcing this at a press conference in Accra yesterday the Chairman of the Ghana Football Association Nana Sam Brew Buttler, pointed out that Abedi’s German club, Munich 1860, stood to face sanctions in accordance with article 39 of FIFA, regulations if they insisted on not releasing the Ghanaian skipper for the national assignment.
So, it was not until yesterday that Abedi phoned me to say he had packed his bag and was on his way to the airport to catch a plane for Accra,” Nana Butler narrated to the press. Later, the team manager of the Black Stars, Rinus Israel named a team of 19 players made up of local stars and nine foreign-based players, pending the arrival of Abedi Pele, for Sunday’s match.
The 10 local players include three goalkeepers- Simon Addo, James Nanor and Constance Martey.
The rest are Emmanuel Armah, Jacob Nettey, Eben Dadzie, Richard Ackon, Stephen Appiah and Robert Boateng. The foreign based players Frank Amankwaah, Christian Sabah, Patrick Allotey, Foster Bastious, Mohammed Gargo, Sam Johnson, Felix Aboagye, Yaw Preko and Kim Grant.
On Tony Yeboah, Israel was equivocal on why he dropped from Sunday’s match. Partly, he explained, Yeboahs’s form was not too impressive when he last played in the Ghana -Sierra Leone match in Freetown , and partly also the team manager was appalled by the lead striker’s tantrums against the assistant coach, Sam Arday after the Freetown match.
Israel however, did not indicate, how long Yeboah would be out of the team. “He has been dropped for Sunday’s match,’ was all his answer. In reaction to the issue of Ghana’s protests to FIFA in the match against Sierra Leone, GFA Chairman, Nana Butler hinted that judgment on that matter and other related matters may be out next month.
Nana Butler also seized the opportunity to announce that approval for payment of outstanding bonuses in respect of the Black Satellites participation at the Moroccan African Youth tournament came last week Friday and all the players and officials he had been duely paid.
He explained that in the Ghanaian practice from the Starlets through to the Black Stars level, bonus are not paid at preliminary stages of tournaments. It is when the team qualifies into knockout stages that we pay bonuses match after match,” Nana Butler stressed.
