Dr Randy Abbey, the host of Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, more or less assumed the role of a guest on the Friday, 02 February 2024 edition of the show as his two guests, Nana Akomea who is the Managing Director of the State Transport Company and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament for North Tongu bombarded him with questions about Ghana’s poor performance in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and thE the budget for the tournament.

Owing to his status as an accomplished sports journalist, football administrator and a member of the Executive Council of the Ghana Football Association, Nana Akomea and Okudzeto believed that Randy Abbey would have answers to their questions about the Black Stars and hit him with a plethora of questions on the show.

The questions traversed his absence in Ivory Coast to the budget for the tournament which as per the revelation by Okudzeto Ablakwa is $8million.

Nana Akomea was the first to throw a question, quizzing Dr Randy Abbey over his absence in Ivory Coast.

Dr Abbey explained “I’m not a member of the Black Stars management committee so I go for games but I will not be directly doing things. It’s not as if I neglected or abandoned the team or my duty. My presence will be an additional whatever but the people in charge were with the team.”

Having successfully navigated their first question, Okudzeto Ablakwa and Nana Akomea sought Dr Abbey’s expert view on the factors that culminated in Ghana’s underwhelming outing in the 34th edition of the AFCON.

Randy Abbey started by accepting responsibility for the poor performance, explaining that it is imperative for the FA which he is a member to admit that that things went horribly wrong in Ivory Coast.

He then broke down the issues in the team that resulted in Ghana’s early exit, stating “I think we had an issue with transitions. I am not a coach, but Salis a DM, and Baba Iddrissu are also the same. Ashimeru is what you would want to call a number 8, somebody who does the transition.

“So if you look at the call-ups and you ask yourself how many number 8s did you put in the team? We had Ashimeru and Richmond Lamptey but Lamptey, for all three games, was not even on the bench for you to play. So in the first game, we had Baba Iddrisu and Salis playing, so it made the transition difficult. When Ashimeru is in the game you can tell that we are able to progress the game better.

“In the third game, I think did not really recover from the injury he had in the second game. So when he went out, we brought out Baba Idrissu, and then two number 6s were playing. “

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa who has been campaigning for accountability relative to the budget for the tournament, posed some questions about the topic to Randy Abbey and he provided clarity on them.

“When the Ministry of Information presents a budget to you (Parliament), it is a budget that includes all its activities for the year. In approving the estimates of the entities under the ministries, it all goes through the committees before it is approved. The FA’s budget does not go to the ministry or government.

“What goes to the ministry is the budget for national teams. The GFA’s work goes beyond the national teams so it is only the national teams which the state funds that is submitted to the ministry. I want to believe that is what is submitted to the ministry’s overall budget which is then sent to the ministry of finance.”

On the $8.5 million budget for the 2023 AFCON, Randy Abbey said “Normally bonuses will constitute about 60% of what you see in the budget. This budget was prepared with South Africa as the training destination. The issue of switching to Ghana was a last-minute decision.”

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Dr Randy Abbey also defended the decision by the GFA to sack Chris Hughton immediately after Ghana was knocked out and also justified why management committee members of the national teams deserve some form of reward for their roles in the respective national teams.

Overall, it was an interesting conversation between Dr Randy Abbey and his two guests which led to some clarity on several issues raised by the public since Ghana's exit from the 2023 AFCON.



EK