Q & A With Kwesi Nyantakyi

THE President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kwesi Nyantakyi has shared his thoughts with 90 Minutes Newspaper on his objectives for Ghana football in 2009 and what he expects to achieve in the coming years. Without doubt, one of his priorities this year is to make sure Ghana qualifies to play in the world's most prestigious football tournament, the World Cup in South Africa next year. With the campaign beginning in March, Kwesi has assured Ghanaians of the preparedness of his outfit to pull all the stops to make sure that the Black Stars makes a second successive appearance at the showpiece event.

90 Minutes: Welcome to the interview spot of 90 Minutes. Kwesi Nyantakyi: Thank you. I am most grateful

90M: Let's begin by touching on your dream for Ghana football in 2009? Well I wish to see Ghana qualify to play at the 2010 World/Nations Cup in South Africa and Angola respectively. We have to also prepare well to make sure that the local Black Stars make Ghana proud in Ivory Coast when they play in the CHAN tournament. It is also my dream to see the Black Satellites win the U-20 youth tournament in Rwanda but in general I wish we can do better in all levels of football competitions than the past year. There is so much we can do to improve our game and that is basically what we would attempt to do this year.

90M: In March the final phase of qualifiers for both the World and Nations Cup tournament would begin. How are we preparing to make sure that Ghana realises the dream of appearing at both events? We at the FA have taken concrete steps to make sure that all who matter to get us to South -Africa are on board to give it our best shot. We hope to learn from our mistakes in order to have a smooth take off against Benin and continue from there to top our group. As part of the steps, we hope to play Egypt next month with the venue yet to be confirmed. While they want to host us in Cairo, we are also contending that we play the match in London. I believe this friendly would afford the technical team the chance to do a better assessment of the squad in order to make an informed judgement when the qualifiers begin. Before we play Benin, we would engage some local teams in friendlies to fine-tune our preparations. As we speak now, Coach Milo is out there monitoring players to make sure that only the best gets into the team.

90M: What does Michael Essien's absence mean to Ghana in the upcoming World/Nations Cup qualifiers? No one can dispute the fact that Michael Essien remains one of our greatest assets and so to miss him would be a big blow. But that notwithstanding, the technical team has done a good job by finding a suitable replacement for him which has so far worked for us. It would be good news to have Essien back to the squad before we begin the qualifiers because his contribution is so crucial but I doubt if he would be ready by then. If we look at how much Scolari and Chelsea are yearning to have him back, then it should tell you that he's quite indispensable.

90M: Goalkeeper Sammy Adjei has hinted of his intention to return to the Black Stars. Would he be accepted back? It all depends on the coaches because they should know better whose contributions would be beneficial to our cause. If they think he would be a better option, why not because we always want the best. But I believe he would first have to pass the test and respect the decisions of the coaches. Nobody forced him out of the team so if he is ready to rescind his decision, he's always welcome.

90M: What should the nation expect from the local Black Stars when they play in the CHAN tournament? We want to be the first nation to win the tournament so we have to make sure that our preparations goes according to plan. Luckily for us the clubs are all busy so that would help the technical team to get the best materials to represent the nation. We will also do our part to get the team and the technical staff well motivated so that they win the trophy. The coaches have a plan to include some of the locally based players in the Word Cup squad and I know that would motivate the boys to work extra hard to bring success.

90M: What is the criterion for selecting players into the Black Stars because some players have made a strong case for themselves by playing well for their respective clubs? It all depends on what the technical team looks out for in every player. But on the whole they monitor players before they are invited so I think any player who is invited meet the standards required by the scouting team. The doors are still open for every Ghanaian player so definitely we would see some new faces into the squad.

90M: How disappointed were you when Ghana failed to win the CAN 2008 tournament? KN: I must admit I was disappointed we could not live up to our host and win billing because in my assessment we had a strong team that could have won the tournament on home soil. Once we failed in that aspect, I think we need to plan better and hope for the best in the coming years.

90M: How attractive do you intend to make Ghana Football to the rest of the world? Yet again because we can only hope for the best we have put in place mechanisms that would help realise our dream of competing on parallel lines with the big soccer nations. We now have Globacom and GBS all helping and we hope to get many more so that our clubs would become financially viable. This will in turn make the players better motivated to play to attract other sponsors. Other steps include making the gates free for females. It's a gradual process but we hope to get there.

90M: Are you satisfied with the standard of our domestic league? One can never be satisfied if you know you can get better. Some might be but I am not because I know we can improve in some areas to make the league more attractive to investors. It is only when we improve upon the quality that we can say we are satisfied but we still need to strive hard to maintain the current standards. Gradually the standard of play is getting better and I believe the clubs have realised the need to get well organised because that is the only means by which corporate sponsors would come in to help.

90M: Are you impressed with the standard of refreeing so far this season? I believe the performances of the referees can get better with time that's why the RFA have occasionally come up with refresher courses to keep them abreast for sanity to prevail at all the league centres.

90M: Hooliganism seemed to have died down until recently when some irate fans vandalised some parts of the Ohene Djan Stadium in protest at a referee's decision. What are some of the steps to curb this and would there be any form of punishment for the culprits? It was rather unfortunate that such an incident occurred in the first place. It all happened before me and personally I think our fans needs to be educated more on the rules of the game else such unwarranted incidents would continue to tarnish our image. I always believe there are better ways to channel protests than to resort to vandalism which should be condemned at all times. Talking of punishments for the culprits I believe we all saw what happened and if it is against the laws of the land then we need not spare those involved in order to serve as a deterrent to others. Such incidents in a way discourage prospective sponsors.

90M: Has the FA got any plans for youth football this year and what plans are there to also improve women football? Youth football is a major priority and will forever remain as such because without it we won't have replacements for our stars. It is big area that we have plans to improve because that is the only means by which we can nurture young talents to take over from the Essiens, Muntaris and the Appiahs. This year our calendar is big but we would strive to see to them all. I believe we could have done better in female football but that would not discourage us from continuing to put in more effort. The future looks quite promising as we have plans to improve so we can compete with the best.

90M: You went to congress a few days ago and re-admitted Okwawu United, Nania F/C and Mighty Jets. What influenced that decision and does their admission mean other clubs can also get away with such acts? After several pleas from the clubs we felt it would be prudent to give them another chance. We shouldn't also forget that they have suffered from the punishment meted out to them already and hope that what happened to these clubs would send the right signals to the others. But in the future no such pardons would be given to any club that violates the rules. Rules are rules and we have to learn to respect them in order to improve the game.

90M: Any last comments for the football public? 2009 promises to be a good year for Ghana football because I believe we would qualify for the 2010 World Cup and win both the CHAN and U-20 tournaments as well. We can do better so we all need to contribute our quota. We are open to criticisms but we also need suggestions that would help improve the game. I would also take this opportunity to impress upon the fans to avoid hooliganism and violent acts and try to respect the decisions of referees because they are human and as such fallible.

90M: Thanks for talking to us. KN: It's my pleasure.