Amissah-Arthur’s presence brought biggest shopping Mall in Brazil to a standstill

An official of Ghana’s World Cup Committee has recounted that Ghana was an enviable brand in Brazil during the FIFA World Cup last June. Agbesi Nutsu told the Justice Dzamefe Commission of Inquiring that a key example of Ghana as a powerful brand was the immense attention the Vice-President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur attracted when he stepped foot in the “biggest shopping mall” in Natale, Brazil. He said the place “came to a standstill, because everybody wanted to associate himself with Ghana”. The witness was taking his turn at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry last Monday. The Commission is investigating Ghana’s shambolic participation in Brazil last June. He was asked by the Commission to detail some of the lessons learnt after Ghana crashed out of the tournament under humiliating circumstances. Player revolt and prime time television coverage of the airlifting of about $3million to the South American country attracted bad publicity for Ghana during the competition.Despite this background, Agbesi told the commission that as ambassadors “we sold ourselves well”. “I had five different [Black Stars] jerseys I came back [home] with none. Some of the supporters were forced to give out their jerseys”, he recalled. He regretted that it was individual supporters who were selling Ghana paraphernalia when it could have been done better by the organizers. Agbesi said the marketing of the country could have been maximized. He recommended that the various supporters union should be merged. He said there were supporters unions such as “Medical supporters union of the Black Stars”, “supporters of the coach of the Black Stars”. These splinter groups did not help the committee in attracting sponsorship for the supporter groups. “Uniformity is very important”, Agbesi said.

Source: Myjoy