Politics in Sports: Majid Waris provides different twist; blames ‘political selection’ for Black Stars woes

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By Yussif April 23, 2020

Ghanaian international, Abdul Majeed Waris has jumped onto the ongoing debate about the effect of Partisan politics on the country’s sporting prospects.

According to the 28-year old attacker, he disagrees with comments by teammate Mubarak Wakaso who earlier this week blamed the Black Stars trophy drought to partisan politics between National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Waris, who is currently in the books of French Ligue 1 side Strasbourg, insists that Ghana has failed to win a major trophy since 1982 because coaches and their technical teams have continuously played politics with player selections instead.

“I saw Wakaso making a comment that party politics between NPP and NDC is affecting the Black Stars and I feel that is not affecting the performance of the players because [party] politics does play football,” Waris told YAC media during an Instagram interview on Wednesday.

“I think at the national team level, the politics rather affect the selection of players.

“Like myself, they will call you from Europe when you’re performing and always drop you like a scapegoat for players who do not even play half a season and I’m not going to talk about myself alone.

“The selections towards [qualifiers or tournaments] are not based on your performance.

“It’s only based on politics in the team and I think it is something that affects us at tournaments because that’s the biggest stage that everyone wants to be part and that’s also when the politics get in a lot,” he added.

The former FC Porto striker, was shockingly missing from Ghana’s final squad named by former coach Kwasi Appiah that represented the country in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations staged in Egypt.

That move meant that it was the third consecutive time he was left out of the Black Stars for the competition.

Waris, has capped 31 times for Ghana, scoring four goals in the process.

The striker, however, is hoping to have another opportunity under new coach C.K Akonnor.