Soccer News of Sunday, 27 January 2002

Source: Nana Kwasi Sarpong ( London)

OPINION: We shouldn't sacrifice the hard won images of our heroes

My self as well as millions of soccer loving Ghanaians were shatterd when Sammy Kuffour was sent home from Mali. One begins to think that Osam Duodu has lost touch with reallity.If he wanted to portray to the whole Ghanaian community that he is a no nonsence man, then he shouldn't have allowed George Blay to go to Mali at all after his drunken episode. What in Jesus name was his mani reason for saking Kuffour. For God sake the era of dictatorship is over and I believe that each and every player should have the freedom to voice out his greviances.

These silly actions on the part of some of our sports gurus leads to some players turning their back on the national team when it matters most.Kuffour as we all know has been very loyal to the national cause through the various age groups to date and the hasn't been any complaint of such nature against him. This is to say that Osam Duodu has his own hidden agenda for his actions and it should be invetigated. As some time past Abedi was invited to parliament to be talked to so do I think Kuffour should have been called aside to be talked to by the FA officials.

We should desist from the act of sacrifising the image of our heroes on trivial issues which can easily be solve in the name od descipline.This goes a long way to tarnish the image of the country. A lot of my work as well as school collegues from sister african countries have commented about this treatment to Kuffour and I think if care is not taken to avert subsequent occurances Osam Duodu and his likes will one day parade their families for the national team.