Meteors elimination confirms the decline Of Ghana football

The National Under 23 soccer team, the Black Meteors got kicked out of the qualifying series for the London 2012 by Sudan therefore, ending Ghana's dream of participating in next years Olympic games.

Most Ghanaians are blaming Coach David Duncan for not being able to chalk victory over Sudan saying Coaches always take the blame for a team failure it is understandable.

I do not dispute the fact that coach Duncan needs to be blame for underrating the Sudaness, especially in the first leg played in Accra. Honestly I don't think he(Duncan) needs to take full blame for Ghana missing out in the London 2012 football competition.

I strongly believe the GFA President, Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi needs to take some of the blame for the Meteors failure to qualify. I know someone will ask why am I blaming the GFA President since he is not the coach. The reason why he(Nyantakyi) needs to take some of the blame is our football which we have entrusted into his hands is deteriorating and quality players are not there to play for our national teams.

The standard of our local Premier League is not what it used to be ten years. Standard have falling and spectatoring at our league centers, the least said about it the better. In the first leg match played in Accra, Coach Duncan decided to use mostly home based players and after losing in Accra he decided to invite fourteen foreign based players for the second leg in Sudan. The question we need to ask ourselves is, if the home based players were that good why would he invite as much as fourteen foreign based players.

As a country we need to put favouritism aside and call a spade a spade. We don't have to wait to see things get out of hand before we point it out. The Meteors are not the first national team to be eliminated from qualifying for a major competition.

First, was the country's national Under 17 soccer team , the Black Starlets failing to qualify for the African Under 17 competition.

Our home based Black Stars suffered humiliation at this years CHAN competition losing all their three games.

The Black Queens, the women football team also got eliminated over the weekend and at the time of writing this article the national Under 20 team have lost their first game in the on-going African Under 20 Youth championship in South Africa.

The country's number of slots in Africa have also been reduced from four to two and since 2007 no local club have advanced to the money zone of the African Champions league.

Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi has made it clear that the deteriorating of our league goes beyond his GFA. He should know that we have entrusted our country's football into hands and he should take the blame and take the bull by the horn and stop saying it's not about him, but it's the country and the league and the interest of all of us that is at stake.

In the last ten years, the only football trophy we have won as a country was the Africa and World Under 20 trophy won by the Black Satellites in 2009. I have heard Mr Nyantakyi saying that the Black Stars have been successful.

I don't know what and how he measures his success. I will say a team have been successful by how many trophies they have won and the Black Stars haven't won any trophy since 1982. He shouldn't forget that the Black Stars are not the first Africa country to make it to the quarter finals of the world cup. Cameroun and Senegal have already been there.

As a country we have been relying too much on our foreign based players and if measures are not put in place to revive our football, it might get a point where we wouldn't even have foreign based players to invite because this days players play a year in our local league and they are sold to low clubs abroad.

Mr Nyantakyi is not doing enough to help in the development of the game at the grass root. Our Colts football which is the foundation of our football have been neglected. Gone are the days when people throng to the various colts league centers on Saturdays to watch colts football. It saddens my heart that the foundation of our football have been neglected.

If the GFA wants to see our football and national teams flourishing again, the foundation of our football needs to be looked after. Good structures and control needs to be put in place regarding Colts football because we have loads of Colts teams all over the country. Some of the FIFA goal project money needs to be allocated in the development of football at the grass roots.

Mr Nyantakyi is contesting for the GFA president again and with the declining state that our football is in at the moment, he needs to tell us what solutions he has for the passion of the nation and what his plan B is because we can't go ahead to give him another term if he has no solutions.

A word to the wise.....

Ekow Omagbemi Arthur

Chorlton, Manchester