On a night where Arsenal had lost to new entrants Sheffield, and the EmeryOut brigade was in full swing with the likes of Pepe, Xhaka and Emery getting flacks for their poor display, Amanda Clinton, a candidate in the Ghana Football Association (GFA) Presidential race, managed to upstage them and got into the top three trends during the Presidential Debate on Monday.
The organizers, GFA did little to include the social media space so it was refreshing to see the name of the only woman in the trends. In fact, the official handle of the GFA tweeted three times on the debate, two without the official hashtag for the debate.
Users of the platform can attest to the difficulty in breaking into the trends on a football night so for Amanda to be number three, she must have put up a performance.
Amanda Clinton is trending
— Benedict Owusu (@KwesiBenedict) October 21, 2019
But Amanda’s trend was not for good reasons. She was trending for reasons she wouldn’t be proud of.
Amanda Clinton is trending for all the reasons u can guess#GFAElections2019
— Sheikh Tophic Sienu (@DeSheikh1) October 21, 2019
On the night, there were two women up against seven men. One on the moderating table, the other among the debaters.
While the moderator made a case for the inclusion of more women in football conversations with her well-researched line of questioning, the debater ‘poured sand in her gari’ with her incoherent, uncoordinated submissions and annoying giggles.
Watching or listening to Amanda Clinton was pretty annoying and at some point, one had to empathize with the lawyer for the embarrassment she was bringing on herself.
The major concern was not her zilch knowledge on footballing issues; neither was it her uncomfortable posture throughout the debate period but her inability to weave together words to make simple sense.
She's had six months to be coached, prepped and to know what she's about. Do better? She may be a competent lawyer, but she simply is not serious about this GFA thing, and just saw this as a chance to market herself.
— Gary #JoySports (@garyalsmith) October 21, 2019
For a lawyer with over a decade experience in corporate law, it was disappointing to see her struggle to answer basic questions on GFA structures and legal issues.
Watching Amanda on that stage last night will make one assume that she was informed of the debate barely an hour before it took place. She was completely out of her depth and made comments that rarely addressed the questions.
It appeared she was more interested in throwing words about than speaking to the issues.
Lawyers are known to be masters of debates. However, on Monday night, Amanda spoke more like a ‘half-drunk’ man. To be honest, most of the words she uttered made no sense.
Her delivery on that platform, arguably, was a stark contrast to the reputation lawyers have carved worldwide.
Her ‘it has overed me’ expression to a question by Ohene Brenya Bampoe was the climax of a forgetful night.
Amanda is laughing . The question has overed her.
— Godfred Akoto Boafo (@eastsportsman) October 21, 2019
The argument may be that she was out of depth because football is not her field but there was George Ankomah too. Another new face in the elections.
Just like Amanda, the man also showed zero understanding and appreciation of the intricacies of football matters but he earned plaudits for how he used his knowledge on law, governance and corporate structures to make cogent arguments and bail himself out from the tough questions from the moderating panel.
Ankomah Mensah is my man of the night. Give him that marketing committee to run.
— Godfred Akoto Boafo (@eastsportsman) October 21, 2019
But it was not all gloomy, there were few bright spots in her submissions.
5?? Amanda Clinton
— Gary #JoySports (@garyalsmith) October 22, 2019
Out of her depth.
Made two coherent points: one on women's footy, and on the capitalist nature of the football market.
Besides that, she would not want to watch a replay of the debate. Neither would we, on her behalf. Bye, Amanda. pic.twitter.com/c0cq9zVbJs
The focus of Amanda’s campaign has been her being a breath of fresh air and being the only woman battling five men for a position that has predominantly been the preserve of men but on the biggest night where she could have convinced Ghanaians that more women deserve a place at the highest table of football administration, she failed miserably.
