A case of Ghana and Foreign Coaches

By: Daniel Allan

Ghana has just appointed another foreign coach for its National Football team. For good or ill, when yet another left in the middle of nowhere, after over 50 years of independence, the debate for a new one was not about competence but whether we should take a local or foreign/white coach. This showed our collective lack of self confidence and a symptom of mental slavery as statistics have shown that we do better with locals. The foreign coaches often use us as pawns to pursue their careers and desert us when we are spent. They realise our mental state and string us along. We literally beg them to come and fail. The problem with our choice goes deeper than searching for a trainer. It shows that serious reengineering needs to be done to the black man's state of mind.

It is the same in other African countries and shows that before the black world can progress, our state of mind must change. It is what African governments must aim at: not the arrangement of chairs around our sinking Titanic as we have been doing.

On January 7th 2003, I wrote in the Graphic Sports newspaper in Ghana on this issue. Years later, our minds are still 'unliberated'. Bob Marley was right to sing- WE MUST EMANCIPATE OURSELVES FROM MENTAL SLAVERY. NONE BUT OURSELVES CAN FREE OUR MINDS. Nkrumah was also right to say that WE MUST CHANGE OUR ATTITUDES, OUR MINDS. We are doing injustice to his independence proclamation that WHEN GIVEN THE CHANCE THE BLACK MAN CAN FIGHT HIS OWN BATTLES AND SHOW THAT HE CAN TAKE CARE OF HIS OWN AFFAIRS.

The issue needs no debating: the success rate for trophies by local coaches at senior level is about 50% while that of foreign coaches have been a paltry 0%. Since appointing its first coach Englishman George Ainsley in 1958, Ghana has appointed 31 coaches. An alarming 23 have been foreign and only 8 have been local. Of these one Burkhard Ziese (German), was used twice (1990-1992 and 2003). We fell on Fred Osam-Duodu 5 times (1978-1981, 1988-1989, 1993, 2000 and 2001-2002) and twice each on C. K. Gyamfi (1963 and 1982-1983) and E. K. Afranie (1984, 2002). Of the foreigners one each has been from England, Sweden, Hungary, Portugal, Denmark, Italy, France and Netherlands, two from Romania, three from Brazil and Serbia, four from Serbia and six from Germany. Ghana appointed its first local coach in 1963 after a succession of 3 whites took them nowhere and he did what no white man ever did. He won the African cup.

Ghana has won the African cup four times. Each time with a black Ghanaian: these gallant men were C. K Gyamfi and Fred Osam-Duodu. In Gyamfi's case after booting him out when he won the cup and then going for a successive 7 white coaches who failed, we again went for him after we did away with another black man who helped us win the cup again. And he won for a second occasion. Is this not a symptom of a mental problem?

Ghana has had other trophies at other levels in football. We won the under 22 world cup once and were runners up twice. We won the under 17 World cup twice and were twice runners up. We were the first African country to win a medal in football at the Olympic Games and we have won the African versions on numerous occasions. We won all these except once with a Ghanaian.

Our shabby treatment of kith and kin is not unique. It goes through the whole of Africa. In our minds eye, black cannot match white. Yet all over Africa the result has been obvious. In the 2008 African Cup, only Egypt out of the 16 countries used a home grown African, yet it was they who won. With this same local, Egypt has won an unprecedented 3 cups in a row making them unprecedented 6-times winners. In 2010, Nigeria sacked their Nigerian coach who gave them bronze in the African cup and appointed a white man so close to the world cup. Needless to say they did very poorly under that white coach.

Algeria was the only African country who used a local coach Rabah Saadane in the 2010 world cup. Ironically it was this man who took them to their last world cup appearance in 1986.Algeria treated him so shabbily after the world cup and sacked him. They used white coaches who usually failed them but they always fell on Saadane as a last resort to bail them out and he does. It was under the same circumstances that he qualified them after 24 years in the wilderness.

At the club level Ghana's Hearts of Oak won an unprecedented 8 titles in a row with a local coach. Then in the year 2000 it won the local league, the FA cup, the African Champions league and the African Super Cup. It then appeared on CNN rated as the 8th best team in the world. They did this with a local as arch rivals Kotoko used a succession of white coaches and had nothing to show for it. After Hearts had appeared on CNN, it sacked this local and then went for a white coach and suffered for it.

We always find excuses for which we do not want to appoint black coaches. Yet none of those excuses is able to stand scrutiny. African search for foreign coaches at the expense of time tested locals makes no sense considering a startling statistic- No country has won the World Cup with a foreign coach in the entire history of the football World Cup.

Africa did very dismally in the world cup on its home soil. Yet out of the six teams representing the continent, five were using foreign coaches. Some may argue that Ghana did relatively well with a foreign coach- a Serbian. That is itself subject to some analysis.

No one defeats the sense behind Africa's use of a white coach better than one former French coach of Ghana, Claude Le Roy. In an analysis on the BBC during the world cup he said- that he has advised foreign coaches who come to Africa to ensure that all the staff they work with are local. This he said includes the team doctors, fitness trainers, psychologists, etc because it is they who will understand African ways and, the psyche of the players, etc. Though he did not add it, it goes without saying that the same applies to the coach himself: a local coach understands all these issue better than the foreigner.

What is even funny and probably senseless is that we take foreign coaches who sometimes understand no English and therefore need interpreters to interact with the players.

Our treatment of coaches who look like us have been very shabby. However, their pedigree is so good that other countries quickly snap them. So many of our countrymen have coached other African countries and shown success at it. One incident particularly showed our shamelessness. We sacked the legendary Jones Attuquayefio who had done so well for us and went for a foreigner who we decided to pay more simply because Jones had the guts to ask for his salary. Suffice it to say that the white man could not take us even to the African cup, something that had been routine previously. Ironically, however Jones who was snapped by never-do-wells, Benin, qualified them for their first African cup of Nations participation ever. Rather than face our shame we boasted to anyone who will listen about how our compatriot had honoured us by qualifying Benin for their first CAN.

Economically it makes absolutely no sense to choose a foreigner over a local because whatever the foreigner is paid makes its way out of the economy. However what even makes it more senseless is the amount of money we are prepared to pay a foreigner compared to a local. The foreigner gets about 10 times more. It is rumoured that the previous coach was making about US$40,000.00 with US$ 5000 to his interpreter because he himself could speak no English.

It appeared second to Ghanaians, the Serbians have done very well with us. However, compared to other countries from where we have taken our foreign coaches, Serbia is not at the top, yet despite their poor command of English that makes communication next to impossible, they have done well. Analysts say, Serbians live a simple life that is similar to ours. They have a culture that makes them understand our ways and that makes us understand them. It would therefore appear that it this that matters.

We do not need to show anyone that we can make it. Even our boxers including Ike Quartey and Agbeko have shown what we can do with local coaches.

So many inventors, scientists have risen out of our continent. Though their potential is recognised by the outside world, we fail to show them any recognition. It has been said countless times how our kith and kin have made designs that have been rejected. The same things have been given to whites for presentation to our officials and they have been taken.

We are happy to see ourselves on foreign media and to find ways to show that we have become more acceptable by the so called outside world.

However it goes without saying we can never be powerful if we value more what others think about us than what we think of ourselves.

We are happy to show that we rule our own countries, yet we hate ourselves and put the white people to higher esteem than ourselves. The end result of it is that we continually stay where we are and we remain powerless with apparent trappings of pomposity.

The above shows that our minds have been warped. It appears we are in a box that we find difficult to get out of. To free ourselves we need to liberate our minds. What we need is to start an education that we free the minds of our future leaders.

But concerning football, it looks like we have found a solution; if you cannot bring yourself to take a Ghanaian, go for a Serb.