The German coach has clarified the situation leading to the famous episode in Senegal.
Former Ghana coach Otto Pfister has explained his decision to snub Anthony Yeboah for Anthony Baffoe as Black Stars captain for the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) final clash with Cote d'Ivoire.
After substantive captain Abedi Ayew Pele picked up a booking in the semi-final win over Nigeria and consequently became ineligible for the final showdown, assistant skipper Yeboah was ignored as the armband was handed to Abedi's roommate Baffoe, who had just joined the team ahead of the tournament.
Yeboah recently accused Baffoe of scheming to earn the captaincy and attributed the final loss to the 'unfair' decision. Baffoe, who missed a kick in what ultimately ended in an 11-10 penalty shoot-out defeat, has denied any wrongdoing.
“Team handling is one of the most difficult duties of a football coach. But in Ghana, it’s a special situation with this clan [sic] thing: there are the Ashantis and the Ga-Adangbe people, Kumasi people and Accra people,” German coach Pfister told Citi Sports.
“So I thought, to keep out this problem, and maybe it was a mistake, but I gave Tony Baffoe the captain’s armband because he was from Germany and he was out of this whole clan thing. That is why I gave him the captaincy.
“Baffoe also spoke French and one of the linesmen also spoke French. Just like Abedi who speaks English and French, but Tony Yeboah speaks English and German, and I had to make a choice so I chose Baffoe.
“But Tony Baffoe was also a great player; he played in Dusseldorf and also played with Metz in France. But beyond all that, he was the most neutral. He was absolutely neutral, that’s why I gave him the captaincy.
“But this was not why we lost the final. It was 28 years ago and I’m sorry to Tony Yeboah for this but I think it wasn’t such a big problem.”
The Black Stars won the Afcon title in 1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982, and were hoping to make it a quintuple of titles at the tournament in Senegal.
Ghana have since 1992 reached the Afcon final on two occasions with both ending in disappointment.
Source: Goal
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Any line being drawn to separate Ghana and CI in terms of the strength of their respective national football squads has always been very very thin with 1992 with being an exception. Abedi was in a god-like form in the 1992 AFCON but the Ivorians could have still beaten us if he had played as they did on Easter Sunday 1987 at the Accra Sports Stadium and in 1994 in Tunisia. Instead of blaming captaincy dispute on our failure to win the AFCON that year let’s give the Ivorians the respect the earned during the tournament. A team that didn’t concede a single goal in open play and beat Algeria 3-0 and eliminated countries like Zambia and Cameroon on their way to the final deserves respect. So as others have said, we lost to a good side in a tough and virtually even match. Let’s stop this CAPTAINCY ***barred word*** and praise the Ivorians. After all they kicked us out two years later with the mighty Abedi , Akunnor and other great players being paraded!
Wherever tribalism exist, all the people live pathetic lives
Am sorry but Otto pfisters explanation is not convincing. 1. Despite this clan as he put it, the team had a captain and a deputy who were from these so called camps. So finding a neutral as he puts it could not have been done at that last hour of a final. 2. Saying baffour spoke french and yeboah didn't speak french cos one of the lines men spoke french is equally untenable, why didn't we choose our captains for games depending on the language our players speak and that of the match officials. What I expected otto pfister to have said was that, he under estimated the impact of that decision and that from hindsight, he as the coach got it wrong and rather apologize to all parties involved especially the people of Ghana.