{"id":317682,"date":"2017-05-09T14:50:04","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T14:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=317682"},"modified":"2017-05-09T14:50:04","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T14:50:04","slug":"calculated-steps-the-contrasting-fortunes-of-kwesi-nyantakyi-and-ghana-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/05\/calculated-steps-the-contrasting-fortunes-of-kwesi-nyantakyi-and-ghana-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Calculated steps: The contrasting fortunes of Kwesi Nyantakyi and Ghana football"},"content":{"rendered":"
Following the appointment of Kwesi Nyantakyi to the position of CAF 1st Vice-President, Citi Sports\u2019 Benjamin Nketsia believes that while the GFA boss\u2019 personal rise is wonderful, he has done little in terms of building Ghana football.<\/strong><\/p>\n Carefully laid Plans<\/strong><\/p>\n On days of accountability, he enters with the aura of a mobster, flanked by \u201cwell-wishers\u201d and statuesque men from the grass roots and underworld of Ghana football, right up until the moment when he takes his seat behind the microphone.<\/p>\n I have been lucky to witness at close quarters one of such events which gives a peek into the thought process of Kwesi Nyantakyi, newly appointed First Vice President of the Confederation of African football (CAF).<\/p>\n As far as the game of football in Africa is concerned, Kwesi Nyantakyi is the second most important and most powerful man on the continent.<\/p>\n Prior to this new achievement, he had been elected to serve for the next four years on FIFA\u2019s executive council.<\/p>\n How did the dream get this big, how did the demure\u00a0boy from Wa in the Upper West region of Ghana make it to football\u2019s most sacred corridors?<\/p>\n On July 2nd, 2014 at the headquarters of the GFA, the Black Stars were slated to meet the press after a World Cup campaign that had quickly gone from hopeful ,to disaster in a matter of days.<\/p>\n The knives were out and the tension hung thick in the air, Ghanaians wanted answers from\u00a0players and the head coach Kwesi Appiah on why the name Ghana had become the butt of jokes for reasons other than football.<\/p>\n In stepped GFA boss Kwesi Nyantakyi calmly explaining how a delay in the arrival of FIFA money combined with emotions to stain a country\u2019s reputation and mar a promising campaign.<\/p>\n In the process he exonerated himself and his entire GFA crew from any wrong doing.<\/p>\n The response was planned and well-executed, his journey from GHALCA to becoming FA President and retaining his status has been planned from the start and so is his recent inclusion on the FIFA Council and now CAF\u2019s second biggest job.<\/p>\n He is adept at wriggling out of sticky situations as was witnessed a few months to the world cup when he was secretly filmed and framed for match fixing.<\/p>\n If that wasn\u2019t enough, he staged another masterclass before the three-man Dzamefe Commission when the early evidence made it clear that his outfit the GFA along with the Ministry of Youth and Sports had connived to embezzle tax payers\u2019 money.<\/p>\n