Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 10y

Kevin-Prince Boateng slams Ghana FA

Kevin-Prince Boateng has attacked the Ghanaian Football Federation for the "amateurish" way their 2014 World Cup campaign was organised.

Boateng was sent home from the tournament following reports of a bust-up with coach Kwesi Appiah. It has since been claimed by Schalke chief Horst Heldt that the midfielder will not resolve the dispute with his national side.

But the player has gone further, revealing a number of areas of discontent in an interview with German newspaper Sport Bild.

He said: "It was a nightmare from the first day to the very end. I never thought that anybody could organise a World Cup so badly -- from the flights to the hotels, everything was so amateurish.

"After our first training camp in Amsterdam, we flew in two groups to Miami because there was apparently not enough room on the flights. Half of us went via Atlanta, the other half via New York. We sat around in the airport for nine hours and were travelling for a total of 19 [hours].

"The flight from Miami to Brazil a week later was 12 hours and we were sat, cramped in in economy. It was hard on our legs. It may sound a little strange to normal people, but for a professional sportsman it's unreasonable. At the same time, the president was sat in business [class] with his wife and two children.

"Then we finally got a charter flight in Brazil, but they managed to lose my luggage. I didn't have any boots or any tape for days. I had nothing. It was a disaster."

Boateng was also unhappy with the state of the accommodation provided.

"Before our first game against the U.S., we were in such a sleazy hotel that could never have been recommended by FIFA," he continued. "The rooms were damp and I had to change mine because it was like I had my own private swimming pool, there was that much water dropping from the ceiling."

Boateng left the Ghana camp ahead of the 2-1 defeat to Portugal along with AC Milan's Sulley Muntari.

It was reported that the Schalke and AC Milan player -- formerly teammates at the Serie A club -- had exchanged insults during training.

Boateng posted a photo on Twitter together with Muntari, denying the stories. Speaking to Sky Sport Italia, he has now given his account of why the pair were sent home.

"I was just joking around with Muntari during a practice match, making fun of him and saying maybe he would be better off being a referee instead," Boateng said. "But the coach thought I had insulted him, which wasn't true. The truth is the coach already had problems with me and he started insulting me in front of everybody.

"My teammates witnessed it all. That is what happened. And then I ask myself: this happened on Sunday and I was only sent packing the following Thursday."

Boateng then claimed that the real reason behind his dismissal from the World Cup was because he questioned the allocation of monies from FIFA for participating in the World Cup, which came on the back of the Ghanaian president intervening in a row about bonuses.

"Two days after the argument, we met with the Ghanaian Football Federation and asked them what had happened to the money they had received from FIFA. Everybody thinks we're here leading a life of luxury, but it's not like that at all.

"We're honoured to be wearing our country's colours, but why did our federation not invest some of the considerable amount of money they had received from FIFA in letting us live this whole experience a bit better?

"With the money they earned, we could have had our families out here, but instead our whole experience in Brazil was terrible."

^ Back to Top ^