The GFA Must Sit Up Or Throw In The Towel

Some of us decided to stop adding our voices to the sentiments expressed by the majority of Ghanaians about the poor performances of our national teams, especially the Black Stars. The reason is that those who can implement our suggestions seem to give deaf ears to them.

When the Black Stars failed to glitter to the satisfaction of the nation, the junior teams — the Meteors, Satellites and the Starlets — were the teams which put smiles on the faces of Ghanaians both on the African continent and at the world level. Many naively say that, we have been parading over-aged players, hence our successes at the junior levels. I want all to know that the secret of the successes chalked by the junior teams is "team work, hard work and dedication to the game".

Even in an organization, the smooth functioning of it depends on the team work among its staff. Gone are the days when coaches of the Starlets and Satellites could invite about 50 players to camp and prune them down to about 22 players before major tournaments. It happened that before they qualified for world tournaments, qualification series would have made them know the style of play of each other.

It also gave the coaches the fair assessment of the quality of each player who made it into the final 22 players. The results cannot be forgotten immediately. It has always been tantalizing to watch the junior teams play their "agoro soccer"with cohesion among players Brazilians with all their samba soccer still fear the "Ghanaian Samba", or the multi-system of play.

The junior teams showcased the quality of Ghana Soccer since 1991 at the world level. Players graduated from one level to another with the inclusion of good ones who sprang up at any time. The technical men were up and doing in their training exercises. The players listened to them, because they saw that it was the only opportunity for them to develop their future. However, all these national teams have crumbled before unsung nations at competitive matches in recent times.

People have questioned the cause of the woes of both the junior teams and the senior team, which is the pride of every football nation. The people who talk about do so, because of the importance of football to the socio-economic life of the people of a nation. In those days of bliss, when the Starlets, Satellites and the Meteors were glittering the whole country was united. Everywhere people talked about football and forgot about their differences. The drinking spots made profits out of the successes of the national teams. Manufacturers of football kit made profit as people encouraged their children to play football.

How can the story be different today as people are advancing in age, technology and experience? We have failed to add value to our achievements, and to find out what made us what we were the days gone by. The least talked about the Black Stars the better. The local players have become training horses for professional players who warm benches in their respective clubs in other countries.

The unfortunate thing is that some of those players could not have received national calls if they were to play in the domestic league. As soon as some corrupt agents smuggle them outside and they start featuring they become national heroes to the detriment of our locally dedicated stars. Because they are not properly baked for international football they become pale shadows of themselves when invited into the senior national team.

Brothers and sisters, our play has lost its bite, because of the over reliance on professional players who assemble for just a day or two to play for the Black Stars. They fail woefully, because there is no team work. How on earth should a coach invite 22 professional players to camp at the same time and expect to have positive results? Ladies and gentlemen, until we decide to build our teams around local stars we must forget about it. We must add only few serious, committed professional players to the local stars. Until then we should forget about any good result.

I knew that Coach Bukhard Ziese would fail the nation when I realized that his aim was to build a national team around professional players. Many of my friends can attest to this fact. He forgot that his successes in 1991 were the result of a solid local Black Stars he used. What a hell should we pay a coach $10,000 a month plus other incentives yet let that coach sit down only to invite professional players to play for the national team?.

I can do that job with ease. Let him work for his pay. Transform local players into international stars. That is the job of a coach. You must teach "nobodies" to become "some bodies". They only come and say that our local players are big fishes in a pond. While with the full complement of professional players they still fail to achieve results.

Even in trial matches their local assistants are able to perform better than them. They say that we don't have goalkeepers in the country, and will prefer 4-year oldies to man our posts., while Sammy Adjei was a revelation at Mali 2002. Louis Quainoo, George Owu and Abukari Kankani etc are all there to be transformed into international goalkeepers. You sit down and look for already baked ones to use. You don't mean it.

What are we doing as a nation to lift ourselves from this shameful situation, where war-torn countries like Uganda, Burundi, Liberia and Rwanda etc beat us in competitive football? We are HIPC yet we waste our money on foreign coaches. I am not against the appointment of foreign coaches, but if we are yet to achieve result then let us forget about them for sometime and see what we can do for ourselves.

I am not surprised, because the blackman does not value his fellow blackman. We cheat ourselves. We are like a "black witch" who does not like good things to come into the family. Even when we employ our local coaches, the GFA does not give them contracts. We prefer to give huge sums of money to foreigners to waste it. Let us sit up. From the Head of State to the ordinary citizen we need to sit up and do something about the negative perception we have about ourselves. Every state owned enterprise is sold to foreigners, yet they come and use the same local expertise. What is that?

When local men have worked so hard to turn around the misfortunes of state owned enterprises we later prefer to give the gains to foreigners. Oh Ghana, when? I challenge the NPP government to do something about the problems our football is facing, because it appears nothing good has happened to Ghana soccer so far.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone in another country. If you have not heard, then I am talking about Coach Jones Cecil Attuquayefio who was sacked from the coaching of the Black Stars, without a contract and incentives to work with. He has qualified Benin for its first participation in an African Cup of Nations finals in Tunisia, 2004. God bless you Jones. What the white man could not do you have been able to do.

When the white man spoilt everything for Benin's national team, Jones was able to salvage the image of the team for its first ever Nations Cup final. When Uncle Ben Koufie was given the GFA to run I was happy, because of his rich experience. However, it seems that the worst of Ghana Soccer seems to happen during his tenure of office. With the inclusion of Abedi Pele it seems the problem would be solved, but we are nowhere to be found.

I personally expected that Abedi Pele, Tony Yeboah etc could be brought into the technical set up of our national teams not as coaches, but to work on some players to bring out the potential in them, and to psyche them for matches. Yet Abedi as a footballer is in administration without positive effect on the national teams performance. Do something about it whoever matters.

I believe that Uncle Ben Koufie and his men should throw in the towel now, because they have woefully failed the nation. We thought Sam Brew Butler's and Jawulas were not doing well, but theirs was even better than today. When Samuel Osei Kuffour was alleged to have said in Mali that they were clothed like prisoners, people thought he was rude. The reason is that, Uncle Ben Koufie, when he assumed office had promised to cloth them to look like national players. However, we went into the tournament without kit for the players.

There is no planning on our part as a nation. When we went to Mali, 2002 we said that we were going to use that squad to build the national team, but where are we? Now the Black Stars have lost the battle of Kigali. Let us sit down and develop a strategy to revive our national team. If the professional players are not going to help us, let us forget about them.

Look at how the local payers together with the few professional players fought gallantly in Kigali. Let us start preparing towards qualification for Germany 2006 World Cup. This time we have to play Somalia and beat them before we could be grouped for the qualifying "proper". Like the normal saying, Somalia is "cheap", and that we will not prepare till we ourselves are found to be "cheap".

I thank all readers and hope that Uncle Ben Koufie and his men will do something about it, not forgetting about Hon. Joe Aggrey who once knew all the problems with Ghana football.

With God all things are possible so let us add prayer to hardwork to enable us succeed.