Kwesi Appiah spoke the truth but… – Sannie Daara

“He spoke the truth when he said that he didn’t ask for a technical adviser but what it means is that the concept of how the Executive committee thinks the team must go is not what the coach shares in,” Ghana FA Spokesman Ibrahim Sannie Daara has said.

The spokesperson for the Ghana FA has confirmed that relieved Black Stars head coach Kwesi Appiah’s public statement that he didn’t bring up the idea of getting him a technical adviser was true but that cost him his job.

The 55-year-old ex-Ghana captain prior to the start of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in a press soiree organized by the Ghana FA in Kumasi made a ‘bold’ public statement indicating he did not moot the idea of appointing him a technical adviser though was willing to it.

“In the first place, I did not request for a technical adviser; I need to make that clear. It was a suggestion that was brought up and I said when it comes to just an advisory role, I have no problem,” Appiah had said.

Little did he know that his employers who sat with him at the 'high table' of the Miklin Hotel conference hall had by the comments, marked him for removal no matter the results after clearing the double header against Uganda and Togo.

Ibrahim Sannie Daara, the Ghana FA spokesman explains it was the FA’s decision to go by adopting the system of having a technical adviser for the national team following the lessons learnt from participating in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

“Upon our return, management thought that going forward in the way to approach our future matches, we should look at the experiences we gained from the World Cup, we should do things that other countries have done that has helped them. And that we should look into that direction of bringing a technical adviser to help the coach; that was the understanding we had,” he explained.

The Ghana FA believe as employers, they have the sole right to determine the technical concept for the team to develop and that Kwesi Appiah’s ‘sudden’ public statement despite being engaged privately meant it clearly was not going to work with him and could be a recipe for conflict between him and whichever technical adviser comes in.

“The Executive Committee as managers of the game has the right to say that this is the direction we want the team to go. And it is important that at every step of the way, we engage the coach in it. If the coach has any strong disagreeing opinion, the place to address that was the Executive Committee. So the Committee thinks that the fact that privately we have gone on even giving [him] the opportunity to the [three-man] committee set up by the Executive committee to go on and work with them to reach an agreement is the faith shown that the coach is being engaged in the process. So the fact that that has been done in meetings and then publicly you insist that it is not with your decision, it means that there is the potential for conflict and that is not what the Executive Committee wants,” Sannie Daara stated.

Lawyers of Kwesi Appiah and the Ghana FA are expected to meet this week to work out his severance package.

He had just entered an extended two-year contract beginning August 1 with a $25,000 monthly salary and a $100,000 signing on fee.