Sports News of Thursday, 19 February 1998

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Black Stars return home.

The Senior National Team, the Black Stars arrived home today from Burkina Faso, after failing to qualify for the quarter-final stage of the on going African Cup of Nations tournament. The Stars were seen by many soccer analysts as one the favorites to lift the cup for the fifth time in the history of the Nations Cup. They were beaten by Togo in their second Group B match and later beaten by the Republic of Congo in their final group B match on Monday. The team, led by the chairman of the Ghana Football Association were not met with the usual excitement and merry making at the airport giving signs that Ghanaians are really disappointed with their performance. Alhaji Jawula apologized on behalf of the team and technical men for the Star's poor performance in their last two matches. He blamed the poor performance of the team on the intransigence of the coach Rinus Israel, who was at logger-heads with some of the players and also refused to listen to the advice of anybody, not even the minister of Sports. When the officials appealed to the coach to consider some Europe-based players, especially Arthur Moses, the head coach threw hi passport at Moses and threatened to resign. On whether Ghana should go for a foreign coach or not, Alhaji Jawula said this should be the consensus of all Ghanaians. Joy