The Black Stars have been struggling to win the African Cup of Nations since winning it in 1982 in Libya. Most soccer connoisseurs, ex-footballers and fans believe the nation’s failure to honour the heroes in the four previous AFCONS has contributed to this situation.
Ghana have played in three different finals after winning the 1982 continental showpiece in Libya. They lost in a marathon shootout against Ivory Coast in 1992, fell narrowly to Egypt in 2010 and again succumbed to their Ivorian counterparts in 2015 in yet another penalty shootout.
Most of the former Black Stars players have disclosed that the nation is paying the price for neglecting the members of previous winning teams who played their hearts out to secure glory and fame for the nation.
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The 1978 AFCON winning team of Ghana were promised an estate house each by the head of state at the time, General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, but it wasn’t fulfilled due to a military coup that toppled his government.
The 1963 and the 1965 winning teams are also bitter that they were not honoured by the state, highlighting the fact that some key players of those sides have since gone on to die in poverty, unappreciated.
However, George Alhassan – a member of the 1978 and 1982 Afcon winning teams – claims that the 1982 squad invoked curses on the nation due to the ill-treatment meted out to them by the head of state Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings – who gave them just a salute as the reward for winning the trophy in Libya.
He said the bitterness that compelled them to curse the nation might still be hurting the Black Stars and that might have been attributed to the 38-year trophy drought.
Meanwhile, the Ghana government under former President John Dramani Mahama in an attempt to pacify the aggrieved Black Stars legends behind the title-winning efforts gave them a cash reward for their contributions.
The players and technical team of those sides or their representatives pocketed a cool GH¢17,894 each for their efforts.
Interestingly, following this settlement, Ghana came very close to winning the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, dominating Ivory Coast in the final yet agonizingly losing the penalty shootouts.
The big puzzle remains: Are the Black Stars suffering from a curse? If they are, why couldn’t the reward by the state help overturn it? Or that was still not good enough?
Ghana was recently eliminated from the ongoing 2023 AFCON after gathering just 2 points.
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