Revamp the Black Stars - Pele Abuga

Accra, Feb. 7, GNA - Mr Pele Abuga, NDC MP for Chiana-Paga and Ranking Member of Youth and Sports Committee of Parliament, on Tuesday said the abysmal performance of the national football team, the Black Stars at the ongoing African Cup of Nation in Egypt had exposed the weaknesses in the Team.

He said the Team needed to be revamped and re-organised before the World Cup in June.

Mr Abuga made these comments in Parliament in a statement on the Black Stars of Ghana.

"We have to avoid the conclusion that our qualification was a fluke and also raise our waned optimism that characterised the Stars' qualification to the World Cup for the first time.

"It is true that Ghana played without some of its key players like Essien, but in the World Cup, where things are sharper, rough and intense, missing one or two key players should not disorganise a team completely."

Mr Abuga said the coach should look beyond and invite strong and talented youthful players into the squad, and suggested that some of the Starlets players, who now played in the Under-20 Team, could be invited. "A few of these boys play better than some of the Black Stars players, but we ignore them because they are not playing professional football outside Ghana.

"These are boys, who have played at the world level and, therefore, experienced and that Guinea and Zimbabwe beat Tunisia and Ghana, respectively, with mainly local boys."

Mr Abuga reminded the Management of the Black Stars team that it had at least two months to re-organise and inject a more purposeful posture into the team.

Contributing to the statement, Mr Bradford Adu, NPP-Okere, said coaching had been the problem with the National Team.

He said Ghanaians must avoid the tendency of always thinking that only a foreign white coach could coach the Team well.

"I do not particularly support foreign coaches. The four times that we won the African championships were all with local coaches. "We do not pay our local coaches well but rather pay huge sums of dollars to the under-performing foreign coaches."

Mr Adu said if the current coach would be maintained then there was the need for the local coaches to be attached to the bench to help him. Mr Joe Baidoe-Ansah, NPP-Effia Kwesimintsim and the Chairman of the Youth and Sports Committee of Parliament, said football was not a war but rather to bring people and nations together.

"Sometimes you win, lose or draw so after a defeat one should not lose hope but rather we have to do our homework well and continue from there."

Mr Baidoe-Ansah called for an urgent look to be taken at the development of juvenile sports at the basic and community levels to unearth talents.

He said most people enjoyed football but did not contribute to it, and it was about time individuals and corporate organisations came in to assist.

On coaches, Mr Baidoe-Ansah said it was important to have a quality coach whether black or white.

Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Majority Chief Whip and MP for Suame, said Ghana should do her homework well to avoid the embarrassment at the World Cup.

He said, however that Ghana lost four of her main midfielders, which cost the team a lot, adding; "some of the players who featured for the Stars should not have been in the team."