We must depoliticise Black Stars ahead of World Cup – Former President Mahama charges Ghanaians
Former President, John Dramani Mahama has called on Ghanaians to depoliticise the Black Stars to encourage the players to give their best on the world stage.
President Mahama, Ghana’s fourth President of the fourth Republic contributed immensely to the Stars’ qualification to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil where Ghana exited at the group stage.
Black Stars make a return to the tournament after missing out on the 2018 edition in Russia and will take on Portugal in their first game in Group H on November 24 before playing South Korea and Uruguay on November 28 and December 2 respectively.
“I urge that all Ghanaians should rally behind the Black Stars. The Black Stars in the past was what united us and any time the stars were playing, there was no political affiliation or ethnic orientation as we all supported them,” former President Mahama said.
“Recently, it doesn’t seem to be the same and I urge that we put all political considerations aside and know that, that is our best national team and for the boys to have the kind of encouragement to give their best on the world stage.
“They need the support of the whole nation, simply put, we must depoliticize the Black stars. If the stars win, it’s not credit to one political party or the other, but to all Ghanaians.”
He added, “It doesn’t matter under which administration it wins the cup or not, we must know that the boys are from all over the country who are not even political. Let’s all support them because any-time they are going to play, I play my part by tweeting and sending them words of encouragement and I am their number one fan.”
“Sometimes I get heartache but now that I am a senior citizen, I have to take it slow. Our team had a good second half against Brazil and normally with our team, it is with settling in and settling down. When we go to a tournament, it takes time for us to settle and play our real soccer.”
“Unfortunately, we are in a Group of death. The teams in our Group are the strongest and look at what faith has made, bringing Uruguay into our Group again. It will be sweet revenge if we score them and so even if you don’t beat anybody, just beat Uruguay for me and lets pay Suarez back for what he did to us.”
