Ghanaian football administrator Takyi Arhin has asked the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to take on Jamie Carragher for his reckless comments and description of the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) as useless.
He opined that the comments by the retired footballer ‘’are rather an unfortunate one’’ that must be condemned without any fear or favour.
Carragher’s comments were made during a discussion on Sky Sports by some pundits after Liverpool’s 2-0 Premier League win at Manchester City on Sunday.
The pundits were discussing Salah’s performance and whether this season he could win the Ballon d’Or—a prestigious annual award for the best player in the world.
The former defender claimed that Salah would have to win the Champions League in order to win the Ballon d’Or because AFCON is not recognised as a major tournament.
He also claimed that “I think the problem is the fact he’s with Egypt, and he’s probably not playing in the major tournament as such, or maybe got a great chance of winning, I think it’s either the Champions League or the major tournament. Normally, the player who excels in that.”
Takyi Arhin, who was irked by these comments, wants CAF to react because it undermines the AFCON.
He asserted that the former player had the effrontery to make the reckless comments because the Europeans are using our African players as guinea pigs.
‘’I don’t blame him for the unfortunate comments. They use our African players playing on their teams as guinea pigs. The reason why he made the comments was because, at the time of playing the AFCON, the European league would also suffer. That is why he made those comments. Without the Blacks, no European team can survive or perform. Whenever AFCON starts, the European teams suffer, so he spoke out of bitterness. It is rather unfortunate. How dare you say that AFCON is not a major tournament? Is the European League better than AFCON? I think he needs to retract those statements and apologise; otherwise, excuse me to say, he would forever be described as someone who makes stupid remarks.”
He added, ”CAF should take him on. CAF should demand a retraction and an apology; otherwise, it will be a dent on AFCON. Claiming that AFCON is not a major tournament was both unfortunate and insulting. Just as he enjoys the European league, we also value the AFCON”.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
