Former Ghana Football Association president, Kwesi Nyantakyi has lifted the lid on why midfielder Laryea Kingston missed out on Ghana's squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
Laryea Kingston despite playing an integral role in Ghana's qualification to the 2006 FIFA World Cup missed out on due to a card he picked at the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations.
Though it is an open secret that Laryea was dropped because of his red card in the Africa Cup of Nations, Kwesi Nyantakyi has revealed that the former Hearts of Oak player could have still made the squad if the appeal was filed on time.
According to Kwesi Nyantakyi, Laryea couldn't make the trip to Germany for the Mundial because the official he personally assigned to file the appeal refused to act on his orders.
Read Kwesi Nyantakyi's narration in an interview with Joy Sports on how the negligence of a GFA official ended Laryea Kingston's dream of playing in the 2006 World Cup below:
“Ghana appealed [Laryea Kingston’s suspension], but the truth of the matter is that the appeal was filed out of time. Unfortunately, Laryea Kingston was suspended due to the red card in Egypt during the African Cup of Nations (AFCON).
We did, but it was filed out of time. Yes, it was filed out of time. Somebody’s negligence at the time. I remember Alex Asante [Deputy General Secretary of the GFA] brought me the sanction [letter] in my room in the hotel at Port Said. I was seated with OB Amoah [then Deputy Sports Minister], so I asked him to hand it to another official (name withheld) to handle.
We moved on to concentrate on other things hoping that this thing would be done, and it was not done. By the time we all came back to look at it, it had not been done.
Unfortunately, that’s how Laryea Kingston didn’t make it to the 2006 World Cup. It was a very painful experience for us. The time for filing an appeal had elapsed and when the time for filing an appeal elapses there’s no other way you can even be heard unless you go for an extension of time within which to file the appeal but in football, we don’t do an extension of time to file an appeal.
Nevertheless, he says we went to the World Cup, lost the first game to Italy but won the two subsequent games [against the Czech Republic and the USA] to qualify for the second round.
Unfortunately, we met almighty Brazil and they whipped us 3-0, but having been to the World Cup for the first time, we thought that the team did well,” he ended.
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Former Black Stars midfielder, Laryea Kingston