Anybody looking for the reason for the Black Stars failure to qualify for the 2002 World Cup in the Far East needs not look further than the over-bearing influence of Enoch Teye Mensah, the immediate past Minister of Sports and the inability of the Ghana Football Association to stand up to him.
ET Mensah called all the shots from fixed positions without weighing the effect on Ghana football. For instance, when he decided that Italian Coach Guiseppe Dossena's contract should not be renewed at a time the Black Stars had made a very bright start to the World Cup preliminaries, he did not appear to have considered the effect on the national team.
On the other hand, a spineless GFA swallowed his suggestion to replace the Italian coach with Jones Attuquayefio without even asking why the Hearts coach should be saddled with the problem of taking care of the technical direction of two teams on different assignments.
In the end Jones was given the job without even an interview. There were reports that even the appointment letter given Attuquayefio was written by the Minister who used the coach himself as courier to send the scribbled note to the FA. The GFA General Secretary only copied the letter on an official letterhead for the technical man.
Saddled with two teams, the coach did what to him was the most appropriate. He simply assembled the players of the national soccer team to be used as the training partners for Accra Hearts of Oak. Therein lies the Black Stars failure.
It would be wrong to attribute all the ills of Ghana sports to the leadership of E.T. Mensah though. For years, Ghana sports have been limping. Inadequate infrastructure and facilities have conspired to undermine Ghana sports for quite some time now. Enoch Teye Mensah added another dimension which has hastened the demise.
Apart from his over-bearing presence, ET Mensah saw sports development in this country from the beclouded spectacles of the National Democratic Congress. If you were not an NDC activist or sympathizer, you were never given a look-in at the heart of sports administration in this country.
This gave birth to a number of sports administrators who owed their jobs not to what they could do to uplift the image of their various disciplines but to their ability to outdo each other in sycophancy. The more sycophantic you were, the more you caught the eye of the all mighty sports minister. Today, the Sports Council, the umbrella organisation for all the various sports discipline is unable to perform because it is populated mainly by dead woods.
That is why the new Sports Minister, Papa Owusu Ankomah and his able deputy, former SWAG President Joe Aggrey, need no time to restructure the Sports Council. On his first official visit to the powerhouse of sports promotion, Papa Owusu Ankomah saw things for himself. He saw crumbled infrastructure, obsolete facilities and unusable equipment.
Addressing the staff, the new Sports Minister spoke of bringing in new ideas to solve some of the teething problems of the Sports Council.
He promised the council "bold and new initiatives to work" including seeking private assistance. The Minister said reducing the huge football expenditure would free funds for the development of other disciplines of sports.
"The nation can become a pillar in sports if the NSC is given the impetus and the necessary encouragement to manage sports efficiently."
The minister saw the sordid state of the 24-year old tartan track and said it is not worthy of a nation like Ghana and promised to work with the Sports Council Chief Executive to get it replaced.
"It is a shame that Ghana goes to neighbouring countries for equipment like electronic timing device to time our athletes," he said.
It is all well and good that the Sports Minister has seen the state of sports facilities Ghanaian sportsmen and women have to use to compete with the rest of the world. Their poor state calls for a very concerted effort to arrest the situation, which will form the bases for another piece in the near future.
For the moment, I take this opportunity to invite the minister to take a closer look at the personnel manning the Sports Council and the various disciplines. As stated earlier, most of the personnel, both technical and administrative, have done very little in the past decade to justify their continued stay at the powerhouse of Ghana sports promotion.
Someone like Brigadier George Broke, for instance, has long overstayed his welcome. He has been acting as Chief Executive of the Sports Council without the courage to take any major decisions. In the era of ET Mensah, the Brigadier was never more than a messenger- carrying files and other documents- and shuttling between the Sports Council and the Ministry.
Under his direction, the Sports Council has all but seized to function. Instead of asserting himself as the Chief Executive of the Sports Council, he became the errand boy of ET Mensah.
If you ask me to tell you his single achievement as head of Ghana sports promotion, I will tell you one thing: That he has lasted so far. I do not think the new Minister needs to rake his memory to get rid of him.
Other senior administrators need to justify their presence. I will like the minister to find out from Joe Kwarteng, the Chief Sports Development Officer to justify his position. I believe Ghana sports will do with a new officer and a different image in that category.
I am told the various sports associations are being reviewed. I hope a review would mean replacing the many dead woods with people who are able and willing to work.
Of late a number of our sports associations have become mere vehicles for officials to travel. Sportsmen and women who sweat to justify the existence of these associations are kept rusting at home.
The new minister appreciates the need to rejuvenate sports promotion with the infusion of fresh blood. Addressing workers of the Sports Council, Papa Ankomah said his administration would be guided by a sense of merit and fair play.
This column welcomes the idea. One only hopes that in our enthusiasm to get qualified personnel to run sports, we do not lean too much on academic qualification. Once upon a season, a top administrator got to his job brandishing a Master's degree.
When he got working, he had to rely on other workers without much academic backgrounds to write letters for him.
It is time for serious business. Let the Ministry blast the gun for the actual race to begin.
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