Renowned football administrator and owner of Tema Youth FC, Wilfred Osei Kwaku, popularly known as Palmer, has made shocking revelations regarding Joseph Paintsil’s exclusion from Ghana’s squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Speaking on Sporty FM, Palmer claimed that the Ghana Football Association (GFA) deliberately dropped Paintsil to prevent him from benefiting financially from the player’s potential transfer.
Palmer stated that Paintsil’s contract with Belgian club KRC Genk includes a clause entitling him to 10% of any onward transfer fee should the player be sold. According to him, this clause did not sit well with the GFA, and they took measures to ensure Paintsil did not get the opportunity to showcase his talent on the global stage.
“Yes, he was dropped because of me. Certainly, because with the agreement with Genk, should there be any onward transfer, Palmer would be entitled to 10% of the onward transfer fee. So that particular clause must be fought against, when Joe needs the platform to expose himself,” he revealed.
Palmer further criticized the selection process, questioning why Paintsil, who had some of the strongest performance statistics among Ghanaian players at the time, was overlooked.
“All the statistical and trend analysis pointed out players who should be selected for the World Cup, and one of them with the strongest stats was Joseph Paintsil. So I asked the coach Otto Addo, you said you are selecting these players based on performance. If it’s based on performance, then the statistics within the football world do not support your selection.”
Paintsil is doubtful for coach Otto Addo’s squad for the upcoming 2026 World Cup qualifiers due to injury.