Ghana Soccer - The Year in Retrospect

Just as we take stock of our lives at year’s end and make new resolutions, so it is important that we take a hard look at the soccer year to see where we excelled, where sustained effort is required and where we need to revamp our efforts for improved performance. I know the GFA leadership will definitely hold its Congress or “Extraordinary Session” in 2011 at which the year 2010 will be retroactively reviewed but I want to precede that with a fan’s perspective, and hopefully some of the points raised will resonate well with them and effective mechanisms, structures and modalities will be put in place for maximized outcomes.

The year 2010 has been remarkably interesting because on the one hand we made wonderful exploits and tremendous strides, whereas on the other we were downright despicable and woefully failed to shed off any negative perception about true professionalism, able leadership and proper administration of the sport. On the game itself, we managed a decent runner up position at the African Cup of Nations which was quite impressive considering the personnel and level of competition, equaled Africa’s best performance at the Senior World Cup by reaching the quarterfinal stage and won the CAF Award as National Team of the Year. Also regarding individual accolades Asamoah Gyan got voted as BBC’s African Footballer of the Year, Kwadwo Asamoah as Africa’s Most Promising Talent and Milovan Rajevac as Coach of the Year by CAF and these are all a true testament to our performance and level of improvement. The Black Stars should be patted on the back and these feats should spur them on to greater heights. They should also be encouraged, motivated and provided the necessary facilities to enhance their focus, drive and commitment so as to bring us more laurels in the future. Even though the next African Cup of Nations and World Cup are two and four years away our efforts today and onward will determine our future success. We have basked enough in our success and it’s now time to get out of that euphoria and get back to business.

There were, however, a plethora of issues which I consider very troubling and which I’ll be addressing in the ensuing paragraphs and hopefully the powers that be will take steps to correct or ameliorate its recurrence. We have come too far to allow certain unhealthy practices and ways of doing things to hamper our forward march to respectability, recognition and excellence. The first issue of concern is the length of time it took for the Black Star players to be compensated after the World Cup in South Africa. It is no fool’s hardy that these boys are rich at least by Ghanaian standards but that’s surely no grounds to unduly delay their rightful compensation. Under no circumstances whatsoever should it take between 3-5 months to figure out whose responsibility it is to compensate these boys much more when to effect the payments. These motivation-killing wranglings between the GFA and Ministry of Youth & Sports is a serious indictment on our level of professionalism or lack thereof. If there’s no working document in place spelling out whose responsibility it is going forward then I’ll humbly plead that a committee of the two bodies be set up to iron out that issue once and for all by mid-2011. How can we convince the Danny Welbeck’s to opt to play for Ghana when they know it will take about 4-6 months for some indecisive leaders to pay them their due. How many of these leaders can tolerate their paychecks or bonuses being delayed by that length of time? I have always been a proponent of giving people second and sometimes third chances because we all sometimes unconsciously make mistakes or dumb decisions but am beginning to get off the fence regarding the Minister of Sports. First, there was the brouhaha surrounding her going to the World Cup with her secretary, bodyguard, driver, house-help and daughter. I know certain reasons have been put forward to justify all that but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know in all honesty that this is wasteful spending. To quote verbatim from a joyonline Sports News report of Nov. 5, 2010, “Ms Dansua explained that the budget is always prepared by the GFA to be approved by the Chief of Staff after the ministry has perused it thoroughly. She added that the Chief of Staff specifically invited officials of the GFA to justify whatever information was contained in the budget before it was forwarded to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department”. From the foregoing this is the sequence I pick from the statement: GFA prepares budget – Forwards to Ministry for review – Ministry then forwards to Chief of Staff – Chief of Staff invites GFA officials to defend and/or justify budget – Chief of Staff then forwards to Controller and Accountant General’s Department for release of funds. Let’s give the Minister the benefit of the doubt that she actually catered for every pesewa in relation to her daughter’s trip. Here are a few questions that I think are worth asking: i)Did the GFA include the secretary, driver, bodyguard and house-help in the initial budget proposal? Was it spelt out in detail or was it masqueraded under miscellaneous expenditure?

ii) If No, then at what stage in the process were the additions made and by whom?

iii) If Yes, then what justification did the GFA provide the Chief of Staff regarding the inclusion of say the house-help when the Minister was presumably going to lodge at a hotel?

iv) Did the Chief of Staff consider the GFA’s justification tenable and did it use due diligence in its final approval review?

v) Was there any oversight review done at the Controller and Accountant General’s Department or such an act would have amounted to an overlap of responsibilities and thus unnecessary?

In American parlance I know am just an “average Joe” on the street and thus none of the people involved in the process are answerable to me but posterity will be the judge of the well meaning Ghanaian soccer fan.

Then came “mediagate” whereby some journalists like Yaw Ampofo Ankrah were presumed to have received $50,000 each for who-knows-what but which has been vehemently refuted and till date hasn’t been counter-refuted. Slowly but surely this issue like many others will die a “natural death” without anyone being held accountable and the cycle continues. As if that wasn’t enough then came the bombshell of an allegation by Marcel Desailly that the Sports Minister and GFA President promised him the Blacks Star coaching job. To be very polite what on God’s green earth is going on? I’m not trying to be chauvinistic here because I’ll make the same recommendation if it were a man but whoever appointed this woman Minister of Sports should take a hard look at her performance. Period!!!! To the GFA please let probity, accountability and transparency permeate the very fabric of the Association, and let the invasion by the Economic & Organized Crime Office (EOCO) a couple of weeks ago over alleged malfeasance never be repeated because it gives credence to peoples negative perceptions and shatters the trust of some of us in the organization. Yes we all support the non-interference of governments in sports administration but if the issue bothers on verification of sponsorship deals and there’s nothing fishy or shady then I don’t see why the dragging of feet to cause such an escalation and embarrassment. I know that as a matter of principle it might not be the right move but with the level of cloud surrounding the GFA’s image I think it would have been worthwhile to break protocol, allow the investigation to proceed and be vindicated. These issues of scandals are becoming too commonplace and the GFA need to do a serious homework to rebuild their image. I remember in 2006 after the World Cup in Germany there was this alleged ticket scandal involving some GFA officials and now this alleged sponsorship deal scandal. We need selfless people to administer Ghana soccer so if there are any persons intent on enriching themselves at the expense of the entire citizenry then that person better reconsider his/her decision because we’re not going to allow Ghana soccer to go back down the tubes. That brings me to the question; why did the GFA President allegedly promise Desailly the Black Star coaching job? Is that the reason why the GFA tried to sway people’s suspicion by stating that inexperience wasn’t going to be used against Desailly? So if experience isn’t a vital qualifying criterion then what is? I don’t know how the GFA coffers look like but recent communications seem to create the impression we’re willing to discount progress over payment. Quality service does not come cheap so if we want a discounted coach then we should be ready for discounted success, if there’s ever any such thing.

Not to leave the ladies out, let’s continue to support Women’s soccer with all the resources and effort needed because it seems we’ve reached a plateau as second fiddle to Nigeria but I believe we can do better than that. Also the local league seems to be diminishing in relevance to other leagues and high time steps are taken to revitalize the league to create some excitement and patronage as was in the days of the late Shamo Quaye’s, Joe Debrah’s etc. I will also like to make a passionate appeal to the Government, administrators, coaches, referees, players and fans to make it our resolve to put our best foot forward to keep the wheels of Ghana’s soccer progress in constant motion. Happy New Year to all my readers and well wishers. Long live Ghana!! Long live Ghana Soccer!!

PS: Much respect to Akwasi Appiah for being true to himself and the people of Ghana by acknowledging his inadequacies and willing to improve on his coaching pedigree before making a run at the Black Star coaching job in the future.

Carl Owusu-Barnes Maryland (USA) Roscoli@hotmail.com