From the pitch at Accra's main stadium which has been likened to a potato field to shambolic accreditation facilities for the huge army of media covering the event, the 2008 African Nations Cup has got off to a bumpy start.
The local organising committee has taken the brunt of the flak, with Ghana manager Claude Le Roy accusing them of indifference.
"The pitch (at the Ohene Djan stadium) is no better than a potato field. It's terrible. If a baker doesn't have flour, he can't bake bread. Similarly with a pitch like that, how can the players play?
"I'd prefer a good surface than beautiful armchairs in the hospitality suite. The organisers haven't thought about the most important thing, the players."
The African Nations Cup has attracted hundreds of reporters, photographers and television presenters from all corners of the globe but the accreditation process has been as one local newspaper put it - "hellish."
Acquiring accreditation is a process that should take no more than half an hour - each media person in Ghana has his or her own horror story of spending days trying to get their pass.
Accra's Koffi Annan centre is being used to process journalists' accreditation and as tempers frayed last week there were occasions when it looked as though the foormer head of the United Nations might be needed to keep the peace.
"The LOC have got it all wrong, press accredition was hellish," stormed the Daily Graphic, one of the main English langugage papers, on Tuesday.
"It was obvious there was poor coordination between the LOC and the Confederation of African Football's Media Committee," the paper added.
"There could not have been a worse start to the competition. The scenes at the Koffi Annan Centre looked so disorganised and chaotic, in sharp contrast with what happened in Egypt two years ago," it added.
Protests have come from international media outlets and papers alike, with journalists in Kumasi, hosting Group C matches, even staging a demonstration on Saturday to advertise their frustrations.
The opening ceremony hasn't escaped criticism either, Sunday's effort before Ghana's 2-1 win over Guinea best described as a low key affair.
"It couldn't be described as spectacular," was how one local correspondent summed up the show.
Such has been the force of condemnation the LOC were moved to issue a public apology on a local radio station on Monday.
At least the football's now taking centre stage, albeit on a surface that Le Roy reckons "is the worst I've seen."