Ghana nearly boycotted 2012 AFCON semis against Zambia because of Dede Ayew – Boateng

Former Black Stars midfielder, Derek Boateng has disclosed that Ghana lost the 2012 African Cup of Nations semifinals against Zambia due to rumours of juju among the players.

He said the Black Stars only warmed up for 15 minutes of their allocated 45 minutes because some of the players vowed not to go on the pitch before Andre ‘Dede’ Ayew.

Speaking on the ‘Saving our Passions’ programme on GTV Sports +, the former Panathanaikos midfielder said some of the players believed they have been bewitched.

“Before that game, we had 45 minutes to do the warm-up. The Zambians were on the field and we were also supposed to come out. Kwasi Appiah was the one to take us through the warm-up and he was standing at the entrance of the tunnel. I came on the field along with Jonathan Mensah or somebody else. We were standing and waiting for the rest of the players. Everyone was saying they will not go on the field first until Andre Ayew comes out,” Boateng said.

Some reports at the time indicated that some of the Black Stars players felt Andre Ayew, who scored the decisive goal in the 2:1 quarter-final success over Tunisia, had strangely “bewitched” them, and the only way they could destroy his supposed spell was to force him on the field before the rest of them exited the dressing room.

“For about 15 to 20 minutes, we were just standing there and without doing the warm-up. So the only warm-up we did in the game was for about 10 to 15 minutes. A lot of the players said they will not be the first to go on the field until Dede Ayew did.”

“So you see some of them sitting on the toilet, some standing on the side, and some sitting. So it was very disturbing. Goran was the coach and he could not understand what was going on. So after the game, I heard a lot of voices. I flipped up and blasted everybody. After the game, Nyatankyi (the GFA President) came to me and asked me what happened and I told him what exactly happened.”

It will be recalled that Ghana coach Goran Stevanovic caused a major uproar after claiming some players had used witchcraft against their teammates at the 2012 AFCON.