Money, lack of patriotism bane of Ghana football… Parliamentary aspirant, Kwesi Mantey

A renowned sports administrator, Emmanuel Kwesi Mantey has  identified money and lack of national patriotism as the clog on the wheel of progress of Ghana football.

He ascribed  some current sports personalities as lacking the spirit of patriotism which has resulted in Ghana’s inability to make significant strides during International tournament.

According to a statement by Dickson Boabi and made available to OpenLife, this assertion is coming on the heels of overwhelming “money consciousness” of current breed of Black Stars players.

The tag ‘money-conscious’ was intensified after the Brazil 2014 debacle, where players revolted over unpaid bonuses with some captured on tape kissing money.

This has seen the nation develop an apathy for their beloved Black Stars which influenced the football association under the tutelage of Kurt Okraku to carve out the ‘Bring back the love’ campaign.

Mantey, who is also an aspiring parliamentary candidate for the Adentan constituency on the ticket of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), in an interview with a section of press men said the only way to eliminate such habits entirely among some of these sports men is to nurture them to be Patriotic at the start of their career instead of enticing them with money as the ultimate reward from the country.

“I always become sad when I hear and listen to the likes of some former sports personalities in Ghana such as Nana Yaw Konadu, Professor Azumah Nelson, Ohene Karikari among others. You realise that they did their best for the nation and not necessarily for money. They sacrificed their lives which indeed reflected positively in various tournament over the years.

Some of them today don’t have individual spirit for what they are doing. They  lack commitment. All their mindset is money, but gone were the days when representing your country alone was enough for you”. he added

As to what could be done to address these challenges in an efforts to win world titles in all aspects of the sporting discipline, he suggested  a paradigm shift from making money the ultimate motive and encourage them to develop love for their country during international competitions.

According to him, after nurturing them, those whose major aim is to amass money for themselves without thinking about Ghana would be left out in the space of time as it may reflect in their performances.

Mantey further appealed to Ghanaians especially the people of Adentan to stringently adhere to the president directives on COVID-19 in order to stay safe.