Great challenges and expectations awaits Mr Zivadinovic

Ghana has once again employed the services of another expatriate coach to handle the senior national team, the Black stars, in an attempt to lift the sinking image of the country's in football.

The Yugoslav national, Millan Zivadinovic who has been engaged for a two-year renewable contract will earn $8,000 dollars a month and an enticement fee of 10,000 dollars- obviously the cheapest on the "market." Former Stars' expatriate coach Giusepe Dossena earned $12,000, Bruno Metsu of Senegal is reported to be earning about $12,000 while countries like Cameroon and Nigeria spend around 25,000 to $30,000 for their expatriate coaches.

Despite the meagre salary of Zivadinovic, there is no doubt that he is an experienced man and a coach of a class, considering his stinct with, Qatar, Suadi Arabia and Yugoslavia. However, there are great challenges and expectations awaiting the new Black Stars' coach as he takes on the appointment as the technical head of the national team. Ghana is no doubt one of the power houses in African football but alas, her image has dwindled in recent times.

The coach must bear in mind that in his bid to build a winsome team he might be meeting tough challenges some of which might even make him loose close friends. But he has to surmount them in order to see his new challenge become a fruitful one.

Indiscipline has been one of the major causes of our frequent fallouts in many tournaments, as players prefer doing their own thing, contrary to instructions both on the field, off the field and in camp. There are instances where it was alleged that players were found enjoying themselves at beer bars on the eve of matches instead of being in camp. Other instances such as wearing of caps while training have also been reported from the camp of the Black Stars.

The issue of disrespect to coaches by players has been a problem and recently the Stars elimination from the nations cup was attributed to indiscipline on the part of some players. Some of players were reported to have even have packed bag and baggage and left Mali before the end of the tournament.

The are other acts of indiscipline that has bedeviled the Stars for the past years and all Ghanaians are aware of these things, among them, players? response to call-ups. Until recently most the players who featured for the nation were foreign based and getting them at a good time to play matches has been a major huddle for many past coaches of the National team.

While players give flimsy excuses to stay away from national calls, some refuse to come due to their displeasure over treatments meted out to them by some people either in the GFA or the technical handlers. Some clubs also refused to allow their players to honour national call even though the players might be willing to play for their nation. This, the clubs do because of their intention to perform well in their respective leagues.

Another issue is interference. This word is not strange to any soccer fan in the country as members of the GFA and Ministry of Youth and Sports have on many occasions pocked their noses in technical affairs of the coaches branding their actions as technical intervention.

There was a situation when a coach is alleged to have sacked an F.A member from the dressing room citing interference as the reason. Even in the new administration of the GFA there are reported cases of interference in the work of the coach who took the team to CAN 2002 in Mali. Therefore the problem of interference till exists and the coach must be aware it.

The assurance given by the Mr. Osei-Kwaku minister of Youth and Sports as well as Mr Ben Koufie, Chairman of the GFA, to give the coach free hand to work is a step in the right direction if these words can be adhered to. Sports infrastructure in our part of the continent are not the best if compared to places where the new coach had done his job but he is expected to make do with what is available to achieve results.

The press especially the sporting press in Ghana is very vibrant and readily points out mistakes committed by coaches, players and soccer administrators as well as offer suggestions to such problems. But in an attempt to carry out these functions there are excesses and this has generated one or two problems.

Taking up a coaching appointment in Ghana cannot go without any criticisms from the press. He may like or dislike the attitude of some pressmen but at the end of the day he has to work hand in hand with them. His work might not be successful without the criticisms and suggestions from the press.

In the face of all these problems together with the meagre financial arrangements, Ghanaians would be expecting so much from Mr Zivadinovic as the new Black Stars coach. Mr Zivadinovic would have to build a strong team for the nation capable of qualifying us to all major tournaments and subsequently putting up an excellent performance in all tournaments.

On the local and international arena the nation is abound in soccer talents, which can take us to places if they are well groomed. Players have be selected from foreign league clubs to form a team but they have proved unreliable and Ghanaians await the day a coach would be chosen to perform the task of moulding the talents we have both at the local and foreign level to conquer Africa and the World.

Ghanaians for the past years have been thirsty for honours in the Nations Cup as well as qualifying for the World Cup but this has eluded us. The nation?s last honours at the African cup of nations was in Libya in 1982 when they last won the cup. Since then, we have been at all the nations cup from 1992 but have never touched the cup. Our best performance was in Senegal in 1992 when Ghana placed second. The nation is therefore in dire need of the trophy, which had decorated our wardrobe for four times.

When Cameroon caused a surprise at the World Cup in 1990 in Italy by getting to the quarterfinal stage, many Africans were geared up to achieve this similar feat and the qualifying series became more competitive, since then but Ghana's attempt to make it have always fallen on rocks. With the 2006 African Cup of nations now as the qualifying stages it is important that we take the series seriously and ensure qualification Mr. Zivadinovic is expected to build a team capable of qualifying to that event to be tagged in Germany in 2006.

There is no doubt that the challenges are herculean but with the assurance from Mr Ben Koufie and Mr Edward Osei-Kwaku, we all live to see whether this can be done. All hands are desk and eyes are watching to see whether Mr. Zivadinovic Millan can rescue the nation from the doldrums and "lead us to the promised land."