THE ongoing 26th Africa Cup of Nations (Ghana 2008) tournament has, in a number of ways, brought the country into the limelight all over the world. Apart from the media glitz which the tournament has attracted, the country itself has benefited from being the host nation by way of the development of its infrastructure and utilities.
That is not all. Socially, the feeling of nationalism that the tournament has engendered among our compatriots surpasses what our participation in the 2006 World Cup in Germany brought up.
The national flag, as well as paraphernalia in the colours of the flag, is all over the place and people are rallying around it.
The euphoria generated has transcended ethnic, gender, age, political and social barriers, with almost every Ghanaian who wants to be counted getting involved. It is, indeed, a great feeling going for us and we wish we would all savour it for as long as possible.
But the DAILY GRAPHIC believes that this nationalistic feeling will last for as long as the Black Stars continue to win their matches and stay in the tournament. The moment they are out, we will lose that feeling and our hearts will be broken.
Last Thursday’s performance by the team against unsung Namibia has brought to the fore the possibility of our Stars not helping us to enjoy the good feeling that Ghana 2008 has brought us for as long as we would want to.
To say the least, their performance was abysmal and, even though they managed to win by that narrow margin of one nil, many were the hearts that were let down that night.
The DAILY GRAPHIC would like to admonish the players and their handlers to “kill” themselves for the nation, the way most people have done so for the national team. In these hard times, most Ghanaians have managed to acquire one paraphernalia or another to adorn himself or herself with, all in the name of support for the team.
We remind the players to consider the near capacity stadium in which they played and the singing that went on throughout the duration of the match. That is how massive the support is for them, not to talk about the sacrifices made by the fans.
It is this massive, all-out support that they must reciprocate by going all out in subsequent matches, especially the one against Morocco on Monday, so that people will continue to patronise their matches.
Since 1982 when we won the cup in far away Libya, the closest we have come was in 1992 in Senegal when we lost on penalties to Cote d’Ivoire at the finals.
We now have the opportunity on home soil to host and win and we plead with our Stars not to do anything that will make us break the trend that seems to have developed since Tunisia hosted and won the tournament in 2004, followed by Egypt in 2006.
Apart from the desire to win the cup and the prestige that will come along with it, the commercial and economic gains that come with every victory that the Black Stars chalk up cannot be quantified.
Companies have invested real money in producing paraphernalia and they can get their money back only if the Stars stay in the competition till the very end. Vendors of these products along our streets and roads, as well as traders who deal in them in their shops and stores, cannot afford to lose when, as a result of the Stars’ early exit, the goods are left unsold.
Above all, soccer is the passion of the nation and so we expect the Stars to deliver the goods for us to continue to enjoy the tournament.
We can be assured of their stay in the competition if they put up a superlative performance in the match against Morocco on Monday and we plead with them to do just that.
They should not let us down, for the cost of that in terms of money and psychological trauma would be colossal.
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