Where is the link between Black Stars failure at AFCON and corruption?

Investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas turned Ghana’s sports sector upside down with his Number 12 expose which gripped the country and Africa as a whole in 2018. The expose exposed some sports personalities in Ghana and beyond who were thriving in the web of corruption.

Paramount amongst them was the then Ghana Football Association (GFA) boss Kwesi Nyantakyi who was cited to have hinted that he had considerable power to influence many sectors of the Ghanaian economy. He went further to suggest that he could facilitate business deals and involve the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, whenever he needed to.

The sensitive and humiliating details of the expose got lots of Ghanaians talking as some were in support of how the expose was handled while others felt it could have been handled better. Tables seem to have turned as fingers are being pointed at investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas for partly contributing to the defeat of the Black Stars in the ongoing AFCON 2021.

According to some, Ghana would not have been knocked out of the AFCON games if the expose had not resulted in Nyantakyi’s sack. Others alleged that he would have used the influence he claimed to have had to ensure victory for the Black Stars.

See tweets below

You may say the rants are just for social media trends, however, an astute journalist and broadcaster, Paul Adom-Otchere – host of Good Evening Ghana programme on Metro TV – also joined in the conversation by pointing fingers at Anas for not properly handling his expose that cost Nyantakyi his position.

According to the broadcaster, Ghanaians celebrated the expose and called for the arrest of Kwesi Nyantakyi while they could have better handled the issue at the time. Reacting to Ghana’s defeat, he said, “going into a game against Comoros and conceding three goals, that’s the lowest that you can get to, and it gets to that point because when Number 12 came, we didn’t handle it well. The evidence of Number 12, the facts of Number 12 could have been handled well and you were writing letters to FIFA to sack Kwesi Nyantakyi”.

The question remains, is there really any correlation between Nyantakyi’s sack and Black Stars loss in the AFCON?

Even then, what could Kwesi Nyantakyi have done to ensure the smooth sailing of the Black Stars in the ongoing AFCON? Use his connections with the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) to change the fortunes of the Black Stars?

Maybe you have some answers?