Boateng, Muntari expelled as Ghana crashed out of World Cup

Semiu Salami
Semiu Salami

Sulley Muntari and Kevin-Prince Boateng have been expelled from Ghana’s World Cup squad for alleged indiscipline.

A statement on the Ghana Football Association website said both players had “been suspended indefinitely”.

It added Boateng had used “vulgar verbal insults targeted at coach Kwesi Appiah” and said Muntari was guilty of an “unprovoked physical attack on an executive committee member”.

The news came just hours before Ghana were eliminated from the tournament.

After Thursday’s final group match against Portugal, Appiah said the pair could be invited back to the national team in the future if they were “performing well”.

The Black Stars still had an outside chance of qualifying for the knockout phase of the tournament going into the final Group G game – which Muntari would have missed through suspension in any event, having been shown yellow cards in each of Ghana’s first two group games.

But a 2-1 defeat by the Portuguese ensured they finished bottom of the group with one point from their three matches.

The Ghana FA statement said the incident involving AC Milan midfielder Muntari took place on Tuesday and named Moses Armah, a member of the team management, as the man said to have been assaulted by the 29-year-old.

And Schalke 04 utility man Boateng, 27, was said by the Ghana FA to have shown “no remorse for his actions”, which took place during the team’s training session in Maceio on Tuesday.

Ghana’s World Cup campaign has already been blighted by a dispute over players’ appearance fees.

On Wednesday, the national government sent in excess of $3m (£1.8m) in a chartered plane to Brazil to pay the squad following their threat to boycott their final group match against Portugal if they did not receive their money.

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