Ghana four AFCON trophies are all missing
Shocking news reaching us indicates that the four African Cup of Nations trophies won by the country is missing. As per the reports, there is none in the possession of Ghana right now, both the replica and the original the Black Stars won for keeps four decades ago.
Ghana first won her first continental honour in 1963 when the country hosted the tournament and beat Sudan in the finals to lifts her maiden title. That success marked a period of Ghanaian domination in the competition. The nation repeated the success two years later in Tunisia by beating the host to retain the title.
They would however fall short consecutively in the subsequent editions, losing to DR Congo and Sudan in 1968 and 1970 respectively. Eight years later, Ghana won the title as host, beating Uganda in the final before adding the fourth and last trophy to date four years later in Libya when they beat the host on penalties to annex the title.
Ghana earned the right to keep the trophy permanently when they won their third title in 1978, becoming the first in the competition’s history to do so though that would later be equalled by Cameroon and Egypt.
According to Saddick Adams also known as Sports Obama, he tried to find the whereabouts of the trophies before the 2019 tournament but was told the trophies are missing.
He said, “…CAF gives you a replica when you win the trophy but if you win it for keeps, they give you gold[original]. Before AFCON 2019 that I followed to find out the trophies, Ghana won, where are they and they said the 1982 coup the Sports Council office was looted so all the four cups we won are missing”.
The experienced and celebrated journalist was speaking about the bad habits of maintenance of national sports facilities where even the Accra Sports stadium which is the national stadium is being heavily used for non-sporting activities.
Meanwhile, in June 2019, the Sports Ministry tweeted a picture of the trophy which was won for keeps and said it will be exhibited at the National Sports Museum when it is established in 2023 as part of preparations for the All African Games.
DID YOU KNOW:
This is the famous AFCON trouphy Ghana hosted and won for keeps in 1978 to become the first country to win it for keeps.
Prior to this famous triumph, Ghana had won the cup earlier in 1963 in Ghana, 1978 in Tunisia and later 1982 in Libya.
This happens to be the last time the Black Stars won the Cup
The Cup known as the ‘Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem Trouphy will be among the many trophies that are scheduled to be exhibited at the Nat. Sports Museum when it’s established as part of the 2023 African Games in Ghana.
However, Ghana’s predicament if true is not the first of its kind in the continent. In 202, CAF announced in a tweet that it has received the news of its trophies missing from the Egyptian Football Association Secretariat and was willing to assist the Egyptian authorities to recover the lost relics.
To date, no news has been heard of the whereabouts of the trophies.
