A Letter To South African Football On The Occasion Of Ghana Beating Them To World Cup Qualifying Spot

Dear South African Football,

As an elected leader in Ghana football circles serving on the executive council of the national association, i have followed with interest, events post Ghana vs South Africa final World Cup qualifying match in Cape Coast, which concluded the second round stage of the competition. The reaction by South Africa to the 1-0 defeat to Ghana, who secured a place in the third round and playoffs to Qatar 2022 is anything but a manifestation of ignorance and failure to accept that the Black Stars deserved to progress at their expense.

South African football and their media have been singing from the same song sheet about biased refereeing and other ‘supposed’ shenanigans to deny them of qualification. Even ball boys, the Ghana presidency and the football association have not been spared the venom of attacks. South Africa must be dog-tired from this campaign, knowing it will get nowhere because Ghana beat them fairly to the qualification spot.

Ignorance is such a fuzzy blanket and the South Africans have been wrapped in this since the outcome of the game in Cape Coast. At the Ghana football association, where I am privileged to be serving on its executive council, we consider this as South Africa’s ignorance yelling but as measured as we have been in our responses, we believe peace and tranquility are worth more without substitutes.

Thé conduct of South African football is akin to the attitude of a petulant little mistress who is seeking to alter reality and facts from the pit of despair. At the level of the Black Stars, Ghana has always been superior to the Bafana Bafana and we don’t have to remind them of previous occasions when we beat them to a World Cup place. As multiple-time African champions who nearly breached Africa’s best performance in the history of the World Cup, we are reminded that they know we are a worthy example for their football because they demonstrated this through their fan support when we were on the cusp of history 11 years ago on their soil in 2010.

Their reaction to being beaten again by Ghana has been undeservedly cold but their actions to seek redress is like putting pennies into a piggy bank and hoping it will prove enough savings to buy a Ferrari.

May be South African football have been presumptuously believing that their new found hope in African football leadership at CAF gives them a special standing. That is a misguided sense of privilege. They failed in their responsibility and duty during the qualifiers to be better than Ghana and whether they plan to use CAF President, their native Dr Motsepe or not will be inconsequential.

I am admonishing South African football to move on and stop fomenting trouble they may regret in future. We have good ties and one sincere football results shouldn’t jeopardize that.

Samuel Anim Addo
Executive Council Member
Ghana Football Association.