Accra, June 3, GNA - The Member of Parliament for Akrofuom, in the Ashanti Region, Mr Kwabena Appiah-Pinkrah has made a strong case for the consideration of a local coach for the senior national football team, the Black Stars.
The elated legislator was at a loss as to why Coach Sellas Tetteh, the trainer of the U-20 team, the Black Satellites should not be made the substantive coach of the Stars after successfully handling the team to whack the Greens of Libya 3-0 in their opening encounter of 2010 FIFA World Cup/Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match played last Sunday at the Baba Yara Sports stadium in Kumasi.
Mr Appiah-Pinkrah on Tuesday told GNA Sports that "I doff my hat for those arguing that we should have a Ghanaian coach", which is reminiscent of the exploits of local coaches such as C.K. Gyamfi, Osam Duodo, E.K. Afranie, "Sir" Jones Attuquayfio and Abdul Razak.
"If these Ghanaian coaches could handle the national teams of neighbouring countries, what prevents us from assigning one of our local coaches to handle either the senior national team and the others and to give them the similar salaries as foreign ones albeit a difference of allowances of the foreign ones?"
Mr Appiah-Pinkrah who was a member of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the 1999 Ghana-Nigeria African Cup of Nations Tournament expressed concern about the lack of facilities for young sportsmen and women especially for those from rural communities to develop their skills and talents to aspire to the national level. The MP advocated for more community sports facilities, trainers and coaches for all the sports disciplines, especially the lesser known ones.
He also called for the political will to support the National Sports Council (NSC) financially and logistically, adding that; "there must be clear cut plans and programmes directed at ensuring that the NSC is supported by a presidential initiative."
Mr Appiah-Pinkrah said for the game of football to succeed, it was necessary to create a pool of coaches and trainers to unearth talents and develop individual skills to build "winnable" teams.
"This implies high level of training for our coaches as well as the ability of a coach to achieve results depending on the capacity to win the confidence of the boys he selects into his team.
Mr Appiah-Pinkrah argued that old stars like Opoku Afriyie, Edward Ansah, Baba Yara and Kuuku Dadzie among others should be made to support the local national coach as well to help coach the national junior football teams.
He said he was optimistic that after the successful handling of the Stars to beat their Libyan counterparts, coach Tetteh should be endorsed to take full and permanent charge of the team, adding that "His knowledge and skill can take the team very far."
