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Muntari and Boateng sent home
In what would be a stunning blow to the Ghana Football team, midfielders Sulley Muntari and Kevin Prince Boateng have been sacked by their coach Kwesi Appiah and barred from taking further part in the tournament.
Ghana who will face Portugal in a do or die match would certainly feel the heat as the duo is important players in the midfield and their absence may hurt the Black Stars badly.
A statement from the Ghanaian FA read: "The Ghana Football Association (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.
"Muntari’s accreditation for the 2014 World Cup has been withdrawn with immediate effect."
Regarding Boateng the Ghanaian FA said: "The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has approved coach Kwesi Appiah’s decision to suspend Kevin-Prince Boateng indefinitely from the Black Stars. The decision takes immediate effect.
"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. Boateng’s accreditation for the 2014 World Cup has been withdrawn with immediate effect."
The sequence of events: Sulley Muntari and Kevin-Prince Boateng
According to a series of tweets Both Muntari and Prince-Boateng had got into an altercation couple of days ago. When Appiah intervened to stop the fight it was alleged that Prince-Boateng insulted the coach, while Sulley Muntari had assaulted a member of Ghana Football committee.
Both the players have been ordered by their coach to leave the hotel by 8 am, Brazil time.
$3 million cash arrived on a plane
Earlier, The Ghana squad had refused to train after the authorities failed to meet their demands of paying the players their participation fees. The matter was resolved when a plane flying from Ghana was deployed to Brazil carrying almost three million dollars. After landing in the airport, the money was transferred to the Hotel where the Ghana team has stayed put in a convoy.
The players were handed cash and it was reported that each player would get $100 thousand. The players refused money transfer to their bank accounts and instead demanded the hard bill be handed to them due to the culture of the country.
“The practice in Ghana has always paid in cash, not by bank transfer. Some players don’t even have a bank account in Ghana. The system (bank) is any different than you are used to in Europe . But it is a common practice among us”, explained the Ghanaian coach in a press conference.
The Ghana Football Authorities have only pre-financed the participation fee which was supposed to be paid by FIFA to the Ghana football team. The money will be refunded though and the Ghana Football officials will receive the money soon. The money has brought a sense of relaxation amongst the players according to coach and hoped that his team would put a good show against Portugal.
Ghana will have to beat Portugal by two goals, who also are in similar waters as the Black Stars and hope that Germany beat USA if the Black Stars would like to have any possible chance of progressing to the next round.
