The World Cup is about to start, and all kinds of public opinion about football are gradually increasing. A few days ago, a news that sounded unreliable went viral on the Internet: the Ghanaian national team found that they forgot their jerseys after arriving in Qatar! For this reason, many netizens called it outrageous and supported one after another, such as quickly finding someone to fly to Qatar with a jersey, finding a local factory to make temporary production, etc., and even said that they would draw one directly on the body.
While everyone was ridiculing, the Ghana Football Association urgently refuted the rumor, saying that Ghana's jerseys were sent directly to Qatar by sponsors and would not pass through Ghana at all, so this is a rumor! In fact, if you think about it, you know how outrageous this news is, on the occasion of this quadrennial football event, the national team jersey with great commercial value has long been pocketed by major sports giants. Even the national football team has sponsorship, not to mention Ghana, which is ranked 61st. Sponsor PUMA has long since sent Ghana's jerseys and equipment to Doha. In fact, Ghana's strength is still very strong in the African region, not only won four African Cup of Nations, but also reached the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup.
Where is Ghana?
Ghana, full name is the Republic of Ghana, located in West Africa, on the northern shore of the Gulf of Guinea, bordering Togo to the east, Burkina Faso to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. With a total area of 238,000 square kilometers and a population of 30.28 million, the capital is Accra. It is the home of the world's cocoa, producing 1/6 of the world's cocoa beans, and one out of every six pieces of chocolate in the world comes from Ghana.
Early history
There are traces of human activity in Ghana during the Stone Age, and a large number of Stone Age stone tools have been found in the Atacora Mountains in southern Ghana. Around the 4th century AD, the first dynasty, the Kingdom of Gugana, was established in the upper reaches of the Senegal and Niger rivers, in the region of present-day Burkina Faso and Mali. In the 11th century, the ancient kingdom of Ghana reached its peak, reaching the northern part of present-day Ghana, and after the 13th century, the kingdom of Ghana was constantly invaded by the Mali Empire, and the inhabitants gradually moved south to settle in the territory of present-day Ghana.
After the Age of Discovery, the Portuguese first arrived in Ghana in 1471. After the gold mine was found, a large number of colonial forts were built from 1482. For the next two hundred years, gold, ivory and slaves were plundered from the area, so the coast of Ghana was also called the Gold Coast. In 1595, the Dutch also reached the Gold Coast, but were defeated by the Portuguese. In 1698, the Dutch came again to the Gold Coast and established the fortresses of Fort Mori and Fort Butley. In 1637-1642, the Dutch defeated the Portuguese and captured their stronghold.
Slave fortress
At this time, people from all over Europe wanted to come here and get a piece of the pie, and the Danes, Swedes, Brandenburgs, and French came here, but they were all defeated by the Portuguese. In 1631, the English gained a foothold and built several fortresses, becoming the main rivals of the Netherlands. At the end of the 17th century, the Ashanti Federation of central Ghana rose to prominence and became one of the great powers along the Gulf of Guinea in the early 19th century. In order to penetrate the interior of Ghana, the British began to invade the Ashanti Federation in the early 19th century, and after nearly a hundred years of war, in 1896, the British army occupied Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Federation, and the following year the British declared the Ashanti Federation under the jurisdiction of the Gold Coast Colony as a British colony.
During British rule, Ghana's gold, diamonds, manganese ore, etc. were completely monopolized by the British, and the ruling authorities forced local farmers to grow only cocoa and buy it at a very low price. After years of sustainable British fishing, Ghana began to rebel against British rule. After the end of World War II, Ghana formed the Gold Coast United Congress Party, which organized a national strike in 1950 under Nkrumah's leadership, and in 1951, Britain agreed that the Gold Coast remained in the Commonwealth for self-government. On March 6, 1957, the Gold Coast declared independence and changed its name to Ghana.
In 1960, the First Republic of Ghana was established with Nkrumah as its first President. After independence, Ghana has worked hard to develop national industry and commerce, eliminate colonial forces, actively support national liberation movements in African countries, and strengthen the unity of African countries. In November 1958, Ghana entered into an alliance with the Republic of Guinea. In December 1960, it formed the Union of African States with Guinea and Mali. It is certainly not the style of the African region to be so calm and reasonable, and sure enough, it is not surprising that the traditional craft of coup d'état began to be performed on stage.
Nkrumah
In the context of the hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two sides tried their best to support their respective forces to overthrow each other, and Nkrumah, who pursued socialism, was naturally regarded as a thorn in the side of the United States. The attempted assassination of Nkrumah in 1961 opened Pandora's box. In 1966, while Nkrumah was abroad, the Ghanaian army staged a coup d'état, overthrowing Nkrumah's government and forming a military junta. The junta abolished the constitution, dissolved parliament, and banned all political party activities. In August 1969, the junta promulgated a new constitution and announced general elections. In 1970, Busia organized the Progressive Party Cabinet as the Second Republic of Ghana.
In January 1972, Achampong led another coup d'état to overthrow Garcia's government and set up the National Salvation Committee. In 1978, Achampon resigned and Akufo took over as head of state. In June 1979, Rollins staged a coup d'état that overthrew Akufo, established the Armed Forces Council, and held general elections in July of the same year. Sheila Liman and the People's National Party won, beginning the period of the Third Republic of Ghana.
Achampon
In December 1981, Rollins again staged a coup d'état to overthrow Hillaliman and established the Provisional National Protection Committee. In 1982, Ghana joined the OAU and the Non-Aligned Movement, the predecessor of the African Union, and became one of the earliest members. At the same time, it stressed African solidarity, good-neighbourliness and friendship and supported national liberation movements in southern Africa. In 1992, Rawlings began to transition from a military to an elected government with a multi-party system, and presidential and parliamentary elections were held at the end of the year. The Fourth Republic of Ghana was established on 7 January 1993 with Rollins as its first president, and was re-elected in 1996.
Rawlings
During the Rollins administration, the eradication of inflation, the development of agriculture, and the encouragement of investment as the key work direction, Ghana's economy has been well developed, of which cocoa farming agriculture as the pillar industry, 65% of the country's people engaged in this industry, economic status higher than gold, known as "green gold". Ghana's cocoa once ranked first in the world, producing 2/3 of the world's cocoa, known as the "land of cocoa". In addition, Ghana's minerals and wood form the other two pillars of the economy.
In 1994, the United Nations revoked Ghana's LDC designation and hailed it as a model for economic restructuring in African countries. At the end of the 90s, due to the sharp depreciation of gold, cocoa and other external factors, Ghana became a "heavily indebted poor country". Until 2007, Ghana discovered about 1.2 billion barrels of oil reserves, which began exploitation in 2010, and has since changed from a low-income country to a lower-middle-income country. I have to say that life is too exciting to implement.
Ghana is one of the few countries in Africa that can barely be called safe and developed. Ghana's economy has maintained a growth rate of 4-6% for many years, with a GDP of US$76.5 billion in 2021 and a per capita of US$2,441, which has exceeded Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, and the security of large urban areas is good, compared to other African countries, Ghana has always been a model for Africa's economic development in the eyes of Western countries. China-Africa trade has been on the rise in recent years, with China becoming Ghana's largest importer, with exports to Ghana reaching US$8.1 billion in 2021. At present, there are about 300 Chinese enterprises operating in Ghana and about 30,000-50,000 Chinese living in Ghana, and many Singaporeans came to Ghana to pan for gold in 2010 due to the rich sands on the coast.
On May 23, 2012, Ghanaian police abruptly arrested 38 Chinese nationals for illegally mining gold for affecting the interests of Africa's largest Anglo-Ashanti Gold Company and polluting the environment. Although the Chinese embassy released the men on bail two days later, relations between China and Ghana have fallen into a low ebb. In 2020, the magical "black coffin" made Ghana popular on the Internet again, and Ghana returned to people's sight.
Ghana Football
Ghana's nickname is "Black Star" and its results are still very good in Africa. He won the Africa Cup of Nations four times in 1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982. This World Cup qualifier beat the African Eagles Nigeria to get the ticket. Back in 2006, Ghana, playing in the World Cup for the first time, became the only African team to qualify from the group, in addition to being the first team to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.
At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, in the quarterfinals, Ghana, determined to make history, fought against two-time champion Uruguay, and the match ended in 90 minutes to a 1-1 draw. After entering extra time, Ghana took a free kick in front of the Uruguayan goal, and after the ball was opened, the two players fought in front of the goal, and Ghana's supplementary shot was blocked by Uruguay's first-time World Cup star Suarez, which was called Suya's version of the "hand of God".
Although Suya was sent off with a red card, Ghanaian striker Gian missed the penalty, and the morale-damaged Ghana team eventually lost to Uruguay in the penalty shootout. After the game, Ghanaian striker Gian said "I really wanted to beat Suarez, but thought that if I stood in that position, I would do the same".
Compared to the efforts of the players, the Ghana Football Association is a bit inactive. In the third game of the 2014 World Cup group stage, Ghana suddenly went on strike because the football association owed them $100,000 each, and the disgraced Ghanaian president urgently airlifted $3 million to Brazil to solve the urgent need. During the 2018 World Cup, a Ghanaian sports journalist named Duvira presented himself as a football investor and successfully fished and enforced the president of the Ghana Football Association, Nyantakoy, and then dissolved the association and dismissed the entire coaching staff due to serious corruption problems. Some countries should really learn from this.
In this year's World Cup, Ghana and South Korea, Portugal and Uruguay were drawn in Group H of the Group of Death, and the match between Ghana and Uruguay will start at 23:00 Beijing time on December 2. Just as the so-called is not the wrong family does not get together, who can have the last laugh of this old wronged family at that time?