Former Black Stars midfielder Rabiu Mohammed has blamed their poor performance at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil on the appearance fee.
Black Stars succumbed to a 2-1 defeat to the United States of America before holding eventual winners Germany to a 2-2 draw in their second game.
The draw against Germany perhaps instilled complacency in Ghanaians including the players ahead of their final game against a misfiring Portugal side. That, notwithstanding, Ghana lost by 2-1 and exited the group stage of the World cup for the first time.
Reports from the camp of the Black Stars during the World cup in Brazil indicated fury among the playing body due to the delay in payment of the appearance fee.
Mohammed said in an interview with Akoma FM that they lost concentration due to the delay in payment of the appearance fee. Each Black Stars player, including the midfielder, reportedly received $100,000.
“I will sum up that we didn’t do well due to the appearance fee which was not paid to us on time and only given to us only before playing against Portugal and this affected a lot of us because our concentration was on the $100,000 fee but not the game,” he told Kumasi-based Akoma FM as quoted by 3news.com.
He, however, indicated that, in spite of the issue, fatigue also played a role in their defeat to Portugal.
“Another reason why we failed was that our players were a bit tired because we had to travel for about three hours to our next venue to play Portugal after our game against Germany,” he added.
