GFA will keep appointing local coaches to assist foreign coaches

A member of the Ghana Football Association’s (GFA) Technical Committee, coach Oti Akenteng, has defended the GFA’s decision to appoint local assistant coaches before naming an expatriate head coach for the senior national team.

According to the technical director of the FA, appointment of an assistant coach to assist a foreign trainer provides an avenue for the local coach to learn.

The GFA on Tuesday 28 February named Black Stars assistant coach Maxwell Konadu as caretaker coach until a new substantive head coach was appointed.

“Normally coaches would want to appoint their own assistant coaches but we have been appointing assistant coaches because we want our people to learn, that is if a foreigner is coming in. That is why we have been doing that,” he explained in an interview with Class Sports.

“But now that we are looking for a coach, we don’t know if it will be somebody within or somebody from outside, so why don’t we wait? If the person appointed is [Ghanaian] and he also tells you that I’m going to appoint my own [assistant, then fine] …But if he is going to come from outside, then definitely we will also want our people to learn on the job, so [for] that one we will appoint an assistant coach,” he stated.

Coach Akenteng further expressed confidence in Maxwell Konadu to handle the team until the new coach comes in.

“If he was not competent I don’t think the committee would have given him an overwhelming [vote] that he should take over. So, for now…they believe he has the competence to take over,” he noted.