Dujkovic to be fired?

Reports reaching The Statesman from Germany and our sources in the Ghana Football Association indicate that Black Stars? expatriate coach, Ratomir Dujkovic will be fired in the next few days.

This development was as a result of a racist remark the coach was reported to have made which was published in a German sports newspaper, Sport Bild and posted on the internet.

According to the report, coach Dujkovic had stated: ?Discipline is the biggesty problem with Black Africans. They have none. Africans have a different mentality from Europeans or the South Americans?.

This is said to have developed a lot of agitation among the playing body and officials alike, wondering how he could lead the Stars to make any meaningful impact at the World Cup.

?Michael Essien is particularly hurt by Doya?s remark and he went round showing his laptop on which he has downloaded the story to other players at their base,? our sources disclosed.

Questions have been raised by Ghanaians and the technical team about the efficiency of coach Doya, particularly in his choice of players for the Black Stars for the World Cup tournament.

At the time of going to press, the GFA was at a meeting to determine the fate of the ramshackle Doya and who takes over from him at this eleventh hour. Our checks on the website Thursday did not fully support the translation given by Joy FM.

Read the literal translation of the ?offending? article in Monday?s edition of The Statesman.

The Stars may settle for an experienced Ghanaian coach like Jones Attuquayfio or go for the most tried and tested, Bora.

Indeed, the pun across soccer circles was that this World Cup won?t be the same without a 62-year-old Serbian who knows how to make a good mayonnaise. His name is Velibor Milutinovic. Better known as ?Bora?, the 62-year-old nomad and footballing romantic is the World Cup?s most ubiquitous coach. Guus Hiddink (approaching his third tournament in charge of a different country) and Carlos Alberto Perreira (finals under four different flags) look like amateurs compared to Bora. He is the don: five successive tournaments, each time with a different nation.

Now, for the first time in 20 years, Bora would have ended up without a team. But, Ghana is likely to stop that from happening if Doya gets the sack, making him one of the 32 coaches in Germany. ?I want to carry on doing what has helped me become a citizen of the world,? he said recently.

His latest spell in club football in Qatar was deliberately on a short-term contract so he would be available for the World Cup. Since last summer he has been waiting. There were rumours he was in for the Hearts job in Scotland, but now is not the time for such shenanigans. ?Club football has too many obligations, it?s not my character to get involved in all that,? he says. ?National team work is the thing for me.?

Since he left his native Serbia four decades ago he has been on the road with little but his enduring charisma and footballing imagination for company. He met his wife while coach of Mexico, but he has learnt to love his family from afar.

The Mexicans were first to fall for his abundant charms, in 1986, when they hosted the finals. After guiding Costa Rica to the knockout phase in 1990, Bora took charge of 1994 hosts United States, then Nigeria in 1998. The biggest test of all was guiding China to qualification for 2002. Having threatened to throw himself off the Great Wall if he failed, his reputation - and bones - survived and the Chinese expressed their gratitude by erecting a monument in his honour. As one of his old friends once said:

?His secret is that he knows how to make a good mayonnaise.? Give him the basic ingredients and he will blend you a team with the right consistency.

Bora?s bid to extend his World Cup record to six out of six went sour in Honduras. Even though he was earning a fraction of Sven-Goran Eriksson?s ?4 million a year, his salary caused deep discontent in a country where half the population earn less than a dollar a day. When the head of the Honduran church got involved, Bora got out. ?Nowhere have I been treated like some kind of criminal as I was here. It became a miserable existence,? he laments.

?Money is not the only motivation for a coach. I was happiest when I was earning the least amount of money - and that was when I was coaching Costa Rica. I was at my lowest ebb at the World Cup in Korea and Japan. I would have given up all my money for just a single point for China