Blame Anas for Ghana’s AFCON 2019 woes – Group

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Ghana’s most decorated investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, must be blamed for Ghana’s Africa Cup of Nations abysmal performance in Egypt, a group said.

Anas and his Tiger Eye PI team uncovered what could be termed as African football’s biggest scandal when scores of referees were caught taking bribes to influence their decisions on the pitch. The exposé led to the resignation and life ban of Ghana FA president and FIFA executive member Kwesi Nyantakyi.

The National Youth Ambassadors (NYA), a youth oriented pressure group formed to affectionately fight against all issues that will affect the youth, said: “Ghana’s dream to secure the fifth AFCON trophy was shattered largely owing to the fact that Ghana, through Anas, had incurred the wrath of Africa’s match officials. It is therefore not farfetched if Anas Aremeyaw Anas is blamed by football fans for Ghana’s AFCON 2019 misfortune.”

Below is NYA’s full statement:

Myriad of reasons have been given to explain as well as justify the Black Stars’ poor show and early exit but featuring prominently in these reasons is the self-styled anti-corruption investigate journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas. 

Indeed, Ghana football has been at the end of some unfair decisions by match officials ever since Anas’ undercover documentary, Number 12, accused some African officials of taking bribes to influence the outcome of football matches.

It has therefore become an open secret that after the exposé, the international referees who have officiated matches against Ghana and Ghanaian clubs have made mistakes which curiously cost the Ghanaian teams. 

One could clearly observe that since the start of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, some bad refereeing decisions have gone against the Black Stars with the first red card of the tournament going to defender John Boye in a decision which was widely condemned.

Then there was an incident which occurred in the 5-4 penalty shootout loss against Tunisia where some Ghanaians and football pundits felt South African referee Victor Gomes wrongly disallowed a goal for a handball by Thomas Partey who set up Jordan Ayew. An incident video replays showed clearly that the ball had rather come off the Atletico Madrid man’s chin.

Several months ago, some fans of Asante Kotoko SC also blamed the investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas for the results of their CAF Confederations Cup group match against Al Hilal of Sudan at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi.

After the match, football pundits and fans in the country argued that referees have been inconsiderate against Ghanaian teams ever since Tiger Eye PI’s expose dubbed Number 12 was aired implicating some of them on the African continent. The centre referee, Bamlak Tessema Weyesa, refused to acknowledge some glaring infringements against Asante Kotoko.

It is not surprising that some Ghanaians took to social media to blame Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Number 12 documentary for our poor show at the AFCON since Ghana is now in the bad books of African referees thanks to Anas. 

The Black Stars had won more Cup of Nations titles than any other country when they were last crowned champions in 1982, but their four trophies have since been surpassed by both Egypt and Cameroon who have seven and five trophies respectively to their credits. 

Ghana’s dream to secure the fifth AFCON trophy was shattered largely owing to the fact that Ghana, through Anas, had incurred the wrath of Africa’s match officials. It is therefore not farfetched if Anas Aremeyaw Anas is blamed by football fans for Ghana’s AFCON 2019 misfortune.

PRESIDENT, FRED APPIAH

VICE PRESIDENT, PRINCE KOFI OWUSU

Source: Daily Mail GH