Open letter to Nyantakyi Part 2

I trust and pray that all is well with you. The last time I wrote an open letter to you, I noted that amongst other things, you had to resign as Chairman of the Black Stars Committee to preserve the respect that you have from some of us.

Since then, I will acknowledge that you have made statements to that effect, but you still remain the Chairman of the Black Stars Committee. I will come to that, but the reason I am writing you this time is because of calls from many people on you to resign as President of the Ghana Football Association.

Let me start by saying that I will be my usual critical self, but the next sentence I am about to write might shock a lot of people.

In my view, there is no real alternative at the moment, as far as the Presidency of the GFA is concerned. I still believe that you are the best man for the job, but clearly you need to be told a few home truths so that you improve on your job.

For starters, at the moment we are in November and our local league is yet to begin. I would be happy to be corrected, but is it not the GFA statutes that state, in Article 21.1.4, that the GFA Congress may expel any member if “the member, its officer(s) or supporter(s) resort to the ordinary law courts without recourse to the GFA dispute mechanisms as provided for in the Statutes of the GFA.”

I refer to the ongoing case involving King Faisal and Aduana Stars. What stopped you from lobbying members to have an extraordinary Congress for this statute to be enforced, especially when King Faisal have had their case thrown out by the Disciplinary and Appeals Committee, but have not gone before the Review Committee, which would have meant exhausting all the GFA dispute mechanisms, before going to court?

Why do reports persist that the Executive Committee, of which you are a member and Chairman, are lobbying Alhaji Grunsah to withdraw? In my view, this is the time for you to be decisive because your sponsors, First Capital Plus Bank and Supersport are very unhappy at the turn of events.

Domestic football in this country has ground to a halt and believe it or not, that forms the bedrock for selection into the various national teams.

I know that this is one of the items you will discuss today at the Executive Committee meeting and I urge you to show decisiveness, because for too long, such incidences have gone on and that is fast making the statute quoted above as a standing joke!

If decisive action is not taken, you could lose out on further sponsorship deals for the Premier League and now, chances of renewal with First capital Plus and Supersport have sunck to an all time low.

Your revelations before the Presidential Commission of Enquiry that you shared out $577,500 without collecting accompanying signatures was a massive faux pas on your part.

I know that Executive Committee members sign for allowances when they come in and I know how disappointed you were, when months ago, one of the GFA drivers was interdicted because some $63,000 meant for payment of such allowances, got missing.

I will not even pretend to know what every Black Stars Management team does to ensure success for the Black Stars to merit an appearance fee of $82,500 and with respect, your explanation of the use of a coefficient convinced very few.

May I humbly submit that it is time you stopped viewing the Black Stars as a cash cow so that not only would the other national teams get more attention, but that you will not further exacerbate the mistrust towards the Black Stars Management Committee from the players.

Yes, I am aware that you have had to fall on some members of that committee to raise some money when needed for certain games, but for me, it is time for you to cut your losses and reconstitute the Black Stars Management Committee.

I know that you are probably waiting until Congress before you do so, but I would strongly advise you to resign now as Committee Chairman so that you win some more respect for yourself, because as it is, unless the interlocutory injunction is removed, Congress cannot come on.

I will also urge you not to be so generous in future with dishing out money to individuals that you gave part of the $577,500 for ‘helping’ the Black Stars.

After all, the Black Stars only took a point out of a possible nine in Brazil, so this is tantamount to paying individuals for very shoddy work done and it also heavily indicts the Black Stars management Committee, of which you remain Chairman!

Mr President, I am sincerely hoping against hope that the appeal launched by the GFA against the Confederation of African Football’s decision to impose a two- year ban on our age-group national teams for alleged discrepancies in the MRI testing proves successful.

If it doesn’t, you will have to dissolve the Black Starlets management Committee because they would have brought Ghana football into disrepute.

Indeed, you would have been within your rights to order an independent investigation into how things got this bad, so that you can wield the axe. Believe it or not, these are some of the things that will cement your position.

Mr President, it is plain to me that you rely too heavily on what people say and as a result of that, you are quick to jump to conclusions and anyone who seems to be critical of you is seen to be an enemy.

I will elaborate with two examples.

Some years ago, I wrote an article in the Graphic Sports about the workings of Virtus International, a player management agency. I remember that on the Friday that the paper came out, I came to the GFA to attend a meeting as an assign of Optimum Media Prime (OMP) which was at the time, the television rights holder of the Premier League.

If you remember, you called me into your office as soon as you saw me and you began to question me about the story I wrote. Indeed, Ben Koufie was with you in the office then and he remarked that he felt I had written a balanced story.

You then stated that you had not read the story. That told me instantly that someone had reported me to you and without even reading what I had written, you would have jumped to conclusions but for Ben Koufie’s presence at the time.

Again, the issue of the Japan friendly had the same nameless people telling you all sorts of things about George Afriyie, who for me has been probably your most loyal supporter.

It is common knowledge that, based on inaccurate reports you received, you believed that Afriyie had gone to report you to the Chief of Staff regarding the match and so relations between the two of you were soured until eventually, things cooled down.

I get the impression that the same nameless people around you are manipulating you by turning you against genuine people who would stand by you and also tell you a few home truths where necessary.

That would only leave you isolated in the long run and what astounds me at times is that the same people doing that cannot offer you any meaningful advice with regard to your role as President, but all they do is to spew gossip.

So now, you are beginning to reject counsel that will help you and you rather see such people are enemies because they are being critical.

So does that mean that now, you will view Osei Kuffuor as an enemy for saying that if he was you, he would have resigned? How many times, haven’t those same nameless people reported me to you because of the articles I have written, and how many times haven’t you even asked certain people to tell me to tone down, even when what I have written is factually accurate?

Mr President, it is time you dissociate yourself from such talebearers because they will bring you nothing but ruin.

By the way, in as much as I respect Osei Kuffuor’s opinion, I do not think that you should resign as GFA President. What I would say to you is that concentrate more on domestic football; stop trying to get everyone onside simply by provision of gifts, money and trips to international matches and tighten your financial belt.

Again, you need to appoint a substantive General Secretary as soon as possible. For Emmanuel Gyimah to have acted in that capacity for close to three years is not acceptable and indeed, the GFA statutes state clearly that the General Secretary is the head of the GFA Secretariat.

Mr President, I also believe that you should take a look at the Communications Department of the GFA. In my humble opinion, the Communications Directorate headed by Ibrahim Sannie Daara, is mostly reactionary rather than pro-active.

What the Communications Directorate should be doing is to pre-empt any criticism of failure to share information, by going out there with information on some of the things the GFA is doing that are positive. Perhaps, getting a communications representative in each of the tem regions to assist Sannie Daara would be a step in the right direction.

I am saying all this because in my view, communication from the GFA needs a lot of improvement and I am sure I am not the only one that thinks so.

You can see from this letter that all I am concerned about is the improvement of our football and so if some of us are critical of you, it is not because we hate you, but because we want you to succeed.

I know that because o the talebearers, you will find that hard to believe, but I do not see any of the proponents of the ‘Get Nyantakyi out’ campaign offering any viable alternative ideas at the moment.

Indeed, you will be shocked to find out that majority of the very talebearers who filled your ears with lies about some of us, are the very people fanning the flames to get you out. A word to the wise, they say, is enough.

Mr President, kindly consider all this as you chair the Executive Committee meeting today and all the best

Yours sincerely

Christopher Opoku