Veteran football administrator Alhaji Karim Grunsah has rubbished talks that the Black Stars qualified for their maiden World Cup as a result of Kwesi Nyantakyi’s influence at the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
“In 2005, the players were there and there was unity,” Alhaji Grunsah insisted. “It is not CAF that helped us to qualify.”
The King Faisal Babes FC owner expressed these sentiments in an interview on Onua TV‘s Agoro Fie on Wednesday, March 12.
He was speaking in relation to Wednesday’s election of current Ghana Football Association (GFA) President onto the CAF Executive Committee.
Already, talks are rife that Kurt Okraku’s election as a member of the Committee could help Ghana in diverse ways including easily making it to the World Cup, linking the maiden qualification to Germany 2006 to Kwesi Nyantakyi’s influence.
But Alhaji Grunsah insisted that the team Ghana had in 2005 was solid and very united.
That team was captained by Stephen Appiah with the likes of Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari and Asamoah Gyan in the squad.
Alhaji Grunsah advised Ghanaians not to expect anything from Kurt Okraku’s election, noting that if the criterion was about performance, the GFA President would not have been elected.
“If it’s about the development of football, particularly in each country, Kurt would not have gotten it,” he told host Alfred Takyi-Mensah.
“In Cameroon [for AFCON 2021], we didn’t do anything. In Cote d’Ivoire [for AFCON 2023], we were last. As for Morocco [for AFCON 2025], we won’t go. So how did he qualify to be elected?
“CAF does not look at those things. Now, when he came, where have our U-17, U-20, U-23 teams been? Our clubs for CAF competitions have reduced. He did not do anything, just thinking about himself and his family.”
