Ghanaian midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng is none to pleased with his country's football federation and how they organized their 2014 World Cup campaign. Boateng was sent home before Ghana's final match against Portugal, and it not appears that he may not have any interest in resolving the dispute.
Kevin-Prince Boateng criticizes Ghanaian FA, calls Brazil experience “terrible”
The Schalke 04 midfielder had plenty to say about the Ghanaian Football Federation, and none of it was good.
Martin Rose
In an interview with German newspaper Sport Bild, Boateng unloaded on Ghana’s FA calling them ‘amateurish’.
It was a nightmare from the first day to the very end. I never thought that anybody could organise a World Cup so badly -- from the flights to the hotels, everything was so amateurish.
After our first training camp in Amsterdam, we flew in two groups to Miami because there was apparently not enough room on the flights. Half of us went via Atlanta, the other half via New York. We sat around in the airport for nine hours and were travelling for a total of 19 [hours].
The flight from Miami to Brazil a week later was 12 hours and we were sat, cramped in in economy. It was hard on our legs. It may sound a little strange to normal people, but for a professional sportsman it's unreasonable. At the same time, the president was sat in business [class] with his wife and two children.
Then we finally got a charter flight in Brazil, but they managed to lose my luggage. I didn't have any boots or any tape for days. I had nothing. It was a disaster.
Boateng also said that the accommodations for the team before the first game against the United States were poor, saying the rooms were "damp" and that there was water "dropping from the ceiling".
The midfielder, along with Sulley Muntari, was sent home early by head coach Kwesi Appiah, following reports that he and Muntari exchanged heated words during training. According to Boateng, they were just joking around.
I was just joking around with Muntari during a practice match, making fun of him and saying maybe he would be better off being a referee instead, but the coach thought I had insulted him, which wasn’t true. The truth is the coach already had problems with me and he started insulting me in front of everybody.
My teammates witnessed it all. That is what happened. And then I ask myself: this happened on Sunday and I was only sent packing the following Thursday.
Boateng went on to say that the real reason behind him being sent home was that he questioned the allocation of money from FIFA by the Ghanaian FA.
We’re honoured to be wearing our country’s colours, but why did our federation not invest some of the considerable amount of money they had received from FIFA in letting us live this whole experience a bit better?
With the money they earned, we could have had our families out here, but instead our whole experience in Brazil was terrible.
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