Appointment Of Black Stars Coach Deferred

The appointment of a coach for the Black Stars is unlikely to take effect until the end of the week. This comes one full week after the deadline for hiring the coach, May 1 expired. Though three coaches were short listed for the job, Yugoslavia national Milan Zivadinovic is the name, which has been pecked to the 10,000-dollar a month job. But insiders at the Ministry For Youth and Sports say while the coach’s appointment is imminent, the approval of the coach’s salary is yet to be finalised.

Chairman of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Ben Koufie says he is disappointed by the delay because it is stalling the GFA’s efforts at raising a team to play an international friendly match against Slovenia on May 17.

The explanation from the Ministry for Youth and Sports is that it is has been kept busy by the All Africa Hockey Club championship, which ended last week. The Ministry for Youth and Sports says it will ‘fast track’ the appointment of the coach for him to begin work immediately. The Yugoslav, with a 28-year experience as a technical brain of football is scheduled to arrive in the country this week to append his signature to a two-year contract.

The romance between Zivadinovic and Ghana will enjoy no honeymoon period. Less than ten days after taking over, the Black Stars new man will play Slovenia in a world cup warmer. His constituency of players will be predominantly European based Ghanaian players. While the GFA has already sent out invitations to some Of Ghana’s big names in Europe, Zivadinovic will be tasked to do a breezing assessment of the players before the Slovenia match.

It is unlikely any local boy will play in the team against Slovenia because according to Ben Koufie the GFA is shying away from the tendency to disrupt the national league for national team purposes. At least not yet.