Nii Lante Vanderpuye Was Never Fit To Be Sports Minister – Sannie Darra

Communications Director of the Ghana football Association Ibrahim Sannie Darra has launched a scathing attack on former youth and sports minister Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye insisting he was never fit to be the sports minister and he should be therefore be blamed for the country’s inability to qualify for Russia 2018.

The country’s football governing body had a rocky relationship with the Member of Parliament for the people of Odododiodio constituency due to some decision he took in his term in office without the involvement of the Ghana FA.

The former GBC worker slashed the winning bonus of the team from $10,000 to $8,000 and called on the players to be patriotic enough to serve the country. He further frizzed complementary tickets for all management members of the team during matches and cancelled the payment of indemnity and unclassified payment insisting the country needs not to pay huge sums of monies to win matches.

However, Sannie Darra is convinced Nii Lante was never fit to be a youth and sports minister due to his attitude, posture and his decision to run the GFA down.

“Nii Lante Vanderpuye poisoned the atmosphere and insisted that the players and the management don’t deserve their winning bonus as if they are thieves. He consistently attacked anybody who was connected to the team to the extent that he said his son could coach the team national team and the media couldn’t question him because they were happy of his attack on the FA." he told Class FM.

“We are now paying the price of all these things done against the country in the hatred of one person, Kwesi Nyantakyi. He didn’t want to see the eyes of Nyantakyi. How can you plan a world cup qualifier without the involvement of the FA president? Not only that but he chose to sideline him at the time where he was occupying one of the most powerful positions in world football. He sidelined the whole management of the team and went directly to negotiate with the players.

“In my opinion, Nii Lante Vanderpuye was never fit to be the youth and sports minister. If we are to juxtapose what he has done comparing to other ministers who have helped us qualify to the world cup successfully, he will be ranked the lowest because he didn’t act as a sport minister of Ghana but he rather acted as a sports minister in charge of anti-Nyantakyi campaign and in doing that he brought damage to the country and he never care about it. I don’t hate him but I am only disappointed in him and some of the sports journalists who joined his crusade knowing that this was going to damage us. Imagine that the globe will not see Ghana at the world cup. This is very sad for a football country like Ghana.” He added.