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The senior national football team of Ghana in the end suffered an early exit from the competition and ended up breaking the hearts of Ghanaian football fans who were anxiously waiting for the team to break the 37-year-old jinx.
Here are the five Black Stars moments that broke the hearts of Ghanaians:
Black Stars suffered another penalty heartbreak
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The Black Stars were knocked out of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations by Tunisia via another penalty shootout
Ghana are perhaps the poorest nation in terms of penalty kicks in the history of the continent’s showpiece.
Despite winning the first ever AFCON final to enter into a shootout in 1982 they have lost every single game that have been decided on penalties.
The Black Stars lost the final of the 1992 and 2015 finals on penalties and in between that Burkina Faso saw them out of the 2013 AFCON in the semis through a penalty shootout.
However, no one expected Ghana’s woes to continue when they came face to face with a nation that had beaten in their last six meetings in the AFCON- Tunisia.
The Black Stars have beaten the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia more than any other nation in the Africa Cup of Nation. But when Ghana settled for a 1-1 draw in round of 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations the Black Stars were edged out through penalties.
Ghanaians were heart broken that they failed to overcome penalty shootout which has been their bane for years.
This reminded Ghanaians of how the team failed to become the first Africa country to reach the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup despite getting so close to making history against Uruguay in 2010 Mundial.
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John Boye became the first player to be sent off in the AFCON as Ghana failed to beat minnows Benin
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The former Heart of Lion defender saw red card after picking a second booking for seemingly mapping up delaying tactics. He became the first player to be sent off and Ghana after having numerical disadvantage threw away their lead.
The incident happened when John Boye left a free-kick for goalkeeper Richard Ofori to take and the centre referee who suspected him of mapping up a delaying tactics flashed the yellow card at him in what was his second bookable offense in the game.
John Boye was shown a yellow card in the first half for fouling his opponent.
In the game Mickael Pote fired Benin into the lead under two minutes, which was the fastest goal in the competition.
But Andre Ayew snatched the equaliser for the Black Stars seven minutes afterwards.
Before Jordan Ayew put Ghana in the driving seat a few minutes to the half time break.
The tide changed after the break when John Boye was handed a second booking for delaying tactics and Benin capitalised on that to secure the equaliser.
Pote put the Squirrels on level pegging when he scored from a nice backheel in the 77th minute.
In the past the Black Stars have had bad experience of some players breaching camp rules by sending their girlfriends to their hotel rooms during tournament which was a kind of distraction.
It was considered Ghana had been over issue of players hosting their girlfriends in their hotel room. However, it was alleged that the girlfriend of Thomas Partey was a kind of distraction not only to Thomas Partey, but to the entire team and she was banned from visiting the hotel of the Black Stars by the national security personnel in charge of the safety of the team.
Ghana’s worst AFCON outing since 2006
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The Black Stars have been the most consistent team in the Africa Cup of Nations since 2008. They have reached the semi-finals of every single AFCON since they hosted the tournament in 2008. This is the best run by any team in the continent’s showpiece.
However, this came to a bizarre end when Ghana were knocked out by none other than their easiest opponent in the competition Tunisia in the round of 16.
Ghanaians before the 2019 AFCON anticipated to end their long drought in the most prestigious football competition on the tournament, having last won it in 1982, which is 37 years ago.
But they couldn’t materialize it when Tunisia booted them out in the round of 16 on penalties.
It became difficult for a lot of Ghanaians who were anxious to see the team end their long wait for a continental trophy to bear the pain for the elimination against Tunisia and they got heartbroken.
Huge winning bonuses to each Black Stars player for just a win in the AFCON
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Ghanaians have in the past been critical of the Black Stars for receiving huge winning bonuses to milk the nation at the expense of the tax-payer.
It became alarming after money was flown to Brazil to pay the Black Stars during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
The Black Stars were snubbed after the Mundial and several Ghanaians developed an apathy towards the senior national team.
Attempts have been made by governments to slash the winning bonus from $10,000 to $5,000, since the Brazil fiasco in order to win back the love for the national team.
The Minister for Youth & Sports Isaac Asiamah even boasted that he engineered the reduction of the Black Stars winning bonus to $ 5,000 in 2017 in just a year after taking office.
But two years on the Black Stars winning bonus was reinstated under his watch and Ghanaians upon hearing the news became upset especially with the new structure of receiving a qualification bonus instead of a winning bonus.
Black Stars despite just a win in the 2019 AFCON benefitted big time because of qualification bonus and this was revealed when Mr. Asiamah announced on the floor of parliament the amount that was spent on the team in Egypt.
Each Black Stars player received a whopping amount of $ 82,155 for winning just one game in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
The Black Stars despite their worst performance in 13 years benefited handsomely in terms of finances, taking home a staggering amount of $ 82,155
This amount was revealed by the Minister for Youth and Sports Isaac Asiamah when he addressed the Parliament of Ghana on Wednesday on the expenditure of the Black Stars during the 2019 continent’s showpiece.
He announced that the government spent a total of $924, 168.00 on per-diem and $965, 405 on winning bonus on the playing body, which is a total of $1,889,573.
When shared the $1,889,573 among the 23 players who represented Ghana in the 2019 AFCON, then it implies each player received $82,155.
The breakdown of the $82,155 is $40,181 on per-diem and 41,974 on winning bonus.
Currently, the Black Stars players are paid qualification bonus, instead of winning bonus, so the team was paid a qualification bonus for reaching the round of 16 and not a winning bonus for their victory over Guinea Bissau.
Ghanaian football fans who were sent to support the Black Stars in Egypt over-stayed
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Ghanaians were heartbroken when news emerged that football fans who were flown to Egypt to support the Black Stars with national resources would stay there for additional weeks due to flight arrangement.
It was seen as an attempt to waste the limited resources of the nation because it didn’t make much economic sense to keep fans in Egypt, feed and accommodate them at the expense of the tax-payer.
The supporters were flown to the North African country by the Youth and Sports Ministry to support to the Black Stars.
Ghana were eliminated from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations by Tunisia on 8th July.
But as of August 1, there were about 21 Ghanaian supporters still in Egypt despite the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations tournament having ended on July 19.