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| John Mensah blocks entrance to GFA |
 Black Stars captain, John Mensah Tuesday took the most unlikely means of lodging his protest over unpaid bonuses, when he blocked the entrance to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) with his black 4x4 cross country vehicle, with registration number GE 1000 Y for well over 45 minutes, a situation that prevented vehicular movement to and from the GFA premises. Efforts to get the Stars dependable defender to move his vehicle proved futile and it took a long convincing from a Director of Hearts of Oak, Alhaji Sulemana Braimah, popularly known as Alhaji Hearts, to get the player to move his vehicle. The incident happened at a time that the GFA General Secretary, Kofi Nsiah and president, Kwesi Nyantakyi together with the Minister of Youth and ,Sports, Akua Sena Dansua, were at the M-Plaza Hotel, meeting with the national Under 20 female team, Black Princesses, who had just returned from their World Cup campaign in Germany. People who were inconvenienced by the behaviour of the player were surprised, while others were simply angry, describing it as a high level of indiscipline from a national star. It was not possible at the time of filing the report to get the reaction of the GFA on the issue but a source close to the GFA confirmed that indeed, there were some outstanding bonuses that had to be paid to the players who competed in the World Cup in South Africa. The GFA source, however, explained that it was not the FA's responsibility to pay the bonuses as that responsibility rested with the Ministry of Youth and Sports. The source further explained that the ministry had had some difficulties raising the amount involved in the foreign currency (US dollars) and had requested to pay the bonus in cedis, but the players had refused to accept that, preferring to be paid in dollars. The Ministry has thus been making the effort to resolve the issue and it was therefore surprising that Mensah would take such a stand. "Assuming that all the bonuses had not been paid, is that the best way for the player to go about protesting? I think it is unfortunate because the bulk of the bonuses has already been paid to them and he is very much aware that their bonuses have never been in arrears until now and that challenge has already been communicated to them. I think if he did that, then it was very unfortunate," the source said. Efforts to reach the accountant of the ministry, as well as the player for his reaction were also futile but a security man at the GFA later gave a flimsy explanation in his defence, saying "John Mensah said he did what• he did on a jovial term to prevent Alhaji Hearts from moving out because he had that kind of relationship with the Hearts director". This is not the first time that a sports star has tried to create confusion with his car. Former world welterweight champion, Ike Quartey caused a stir at the Ohene Djan Stadium when he left his vehicle parked at the main entrance of the stadium when he was refused entry with his entourage who did not have tickets to watch a game that was being played. Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 28 July 2010 09:56 ) |
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