The sacking of Coach Akwesi Appiah was imminent, it started loading in Brazil and now has fully loaded. Thus, the first indigenous coach of the senior national team has failed. What does this mean for the chances of other indigenous coaches to be given the mantle to handle the senior national team? Will it serve as a precedent for the appointment of an indigenous coach in the future? Well, as the saying goes in Ghana; we live to see!
My concern with the sacking of Akwesi Appiah has to do with the rush in which the GFA handed him a contract extension right after the team’s poor showing in Brazil. This contract extension means Coach Appiah is entitled to a huge compensation once he is sacked. The rush in which the contract extension was done without waiting for him to prove himself further in the AFCON qualifiers leaves the discerning Ghanaian to conclude that either the GFA officials are incompetent or they have connived to rip-off Ghanaians again with the huge compensation that comes with the sacking of Appiah. This compensation which is over $800,000, (I stand to be corrected) can build a number of community parks for grass root football development. This money will be wasted for no work done and this shows the kind of leadership at the GFA. Coach Akwesi Appiah is just being used as the face of a bigger problem in Ghana football and his sacking will not solve the problem until the whole GFA is overhauled.
GFA under the leadership Nyantakyi has seen the Ghana premier league become unattractive, the various leagues haven’t seen any improvement and Colts football is near extinction. Talent development has gone down so much that even at the junior levels of the national teams we have to rely on foreign based players to perform well at youth world tournaments. It seems the only thing that the GFA under Nyantakyi is dedicated to is to be making money with the Blackstars brand, money that is not accounted for and spent behind the opaque walls of the GFA. Under the watchful eyes of Kwesi Nyantakyi and his team, massive underdeveloped young player exodus to non-football nations has become the order of the day. The leagues in Ghana have become so unattractive that young players don’t find it rewarding to stay and develop their talents here. They even choose war torn countries like Libya over Ghana. The poor showings of our clubs in the CAF champions and the Confederation cup over the last ten years goes to show how bad our various local leagues have become, hence the player exodus.
Nyantakyi has qualified us for three world cups but he did it with end products that came out of very competitive Colts football that was in Ghana some years back. The likes of Stephen Appiah, Derick Boateng and Razak Pimpong were stars in their various communities in Accra when Colts football was active. These players graduated and become the players that Nyantakyi came to meet in the National team. As we speak today, we have to call on Ghanaians who have been trained abroad even at the under 20 level to ensure we win laurels. Nyantakyi has destroyed grass root football and we may have to rely on the products from outside the country and Academies like Right to Dream which are managed by foreign experts to ensure the survival of our national teams in the near future if something is not done quickly.
If Kwesi Nyantakyi doesn’t resign honourably, I will plead with the delegates who will vote in the next GFA elections to put their individual interest aside and look at the future of Ghana football and vote Nyantakyi and his gang out.
Ghana football needs a fresh start, the old must be done away with and fresh and new ideas must be brought on board.
Kenneth Nii Yeboah
King_ken2@yahoo.com
