The leader of delegation of Ghana’s Black Queens, Kudjo Fianoo, has shockingly claimed that players of the senior women’s football team lost focus during the ongoing 2018 Women’s AFCON, adding that the loss of focus contributed heavily to the team’s first-round exit in the competition.

With millions of dollars invested by the Ghana government to host the most prestigious women’s football competition on the African continent, it was the desire of many Ghanaians to see the Black Queens host and win their first major tournament. But that was not to be as the Black Queens exited from the group stages with only 4 points from 3 games.

An opening day victory over Algeria sharply nosedived as the Black Queens lost and drew with Mali and Cameroon respectively in the 2nd and 3rd group games.

With only four points accrued from the group stages, the Queens were bundled out of the competition with Mali and Cameroon progressing in Group A.

Speaking to the media after the Queens exit, Mr Fianoo who also doubles as the Chairman of the Ghana League Clubs Association said financial considerations overshadowed the bigger picture for the Queens even if they were technical frailties in the team as well.

“Some of the players wanted to use this tournament as a basis to demand old outstanding bonuses due them. When we spoke to them and looked at the documentation, we realized that some of the bonuses dated as far back as 2014 and 2016 and came up to about $500,000 in total. So the Normalization Committee and the Sports Ministry spoke to the girls to keep their focus on this tournament while they work with Finance and Accountant General to sort out the outstanding bonuses. However, the Ministry gave the girls some money as a form of motivation and I can tell you that even the bonuses there were supposed to get for this tournament were doubled. But the truth is the money issues made the team lose focus.”

The Black Queens are yet to win the Women’s AFCON title for Ghana.