<\/p>\n
Asamoah Gyan, a former captain of the national senior soccer team,\u00a0Black Stars, has described as hypocritical the decision by workers to embark on industrial action over unpaid salaries and conditions of service but criticise footballers for demanding what is due them when they represent the country in tournaments.<\/p>\n
Making an argument about fairness, Gyan\u2019s initial response to whether people should be careful how they speak to or deal with footballers or personalities since they may not know what the public figures may be going through was \u201csometimes, I feel it\u2019s jealousy\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to him, every worker deserves his wages and hence is bewildered as to why there is brouhaha whenever footballers called to the national team talk about winning bonuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe national team is being paid bonuses. One journalist comes up with a story and people jump on it,\u201d Gyan said in an interview with Dentaa monitored by\u00a0GhanaWeb. \u201cThis is our career, I\u2019m a footballer, I need to be paid. Why do doctors go on strike? You only attack footballers because they\u2019re taking bonuses but when you\u2019re not being paid, you go on strike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gyan, who recently engendered national conversation with his readiness for the 2022 World Cup, said there have been instances where people would secretly support them but openly jab them for same.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026behind the scene, those same people will tell you \u2018you have a case\u2019. But when they go on social media, they demonstrate hypocrisy,\u201d the footballer remarked while adding that the attitude has been normalized.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Black Stars\u00a0came under intense backlash during the 2014 World Cup when the government sent a plane with $3 million in cash to Brazil to appease the players who were agitated over unpaid appearance fees. They had insisted \u201cthey wouldn\u2019t take anything but physical cash,\u201d Ghana\u2019s Deputy Sports Minister at the time, Joseph Yammin said.<\/p>\n
After this incident, some soccer fans paid keen attention to the amount given to\u00a0Black Stars\u00a0players as appearance fee and winning bonus. In most cases, some people argued that the amount involved was overly high as they cited the quotations of some other countries in their comparative analysis.<\/p>\n
Others have also argued that appearance fees and winning bonuses should be scrapped. In 2021 when President Akufo-Addo said the government, together with Cooperate Ghana, was raising $25 million for the\u00a0Black Stars\u2019 participation at AFCON and the 2022 Qatar World Cup, the announcement divided opinions.<\/p>\n
Source: Ghanaweb<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Featured Video\n<\/p>\n\n
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