We need a system to have an infusion of young players into the national sphere – NDC MP

A former Youth and Sports minister under the National Democratic Congress, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, has reiterated that there is a need to structure grassroots football through to the pyramid by introducing strategic models to ensure a sustainable future for football in Ghana.

The lawmaker who spearheaded the sector from 2015 to 2017 has laid down key concerns in such an equitable manner that he thinks will contribute to the progress of the game domestically and during tournaments.

“All the [English] Premier [League] clubs have junior levels – U21, U19 – playing in a league. So, the system is built in a way there will always be an infusion of new, younger faces into the national sphere," Vanderpuye told Joy Sports.

“What do we see here? We wait until we have a tournament; we invite somebody here, we call somebody from here, put them together and play. We can never achieve results when we continue to do that.

“It’s like we plan to fail. England used to have people like Calvert-Lewin, Foden, and Greenwood, all these people were part of the team, but they’ve moved on. In the next four years, those playing in the U17 tournament will be there’’, he added.

Vanderpuye, 58, is a seasoned Sports Journalist where from 1990 to 2004, he worked at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and was later named the Deputy Head of Sports. Between 2005 and 2008, he was the Head of Sports at Network Broadcasting Limited.

LSN/OGB