Whenever the issue of the AFCON and whether we require foreign or local coaches comes up, we are all quick to point out, that Ghana has won four AFCONs, all with local coaches. But is it as simple as that? I am not going to pretend to have all the answers, but in the spirit of AFCON which we are all eagerly awaiting, I believe this is as good a time as any to discuss this issue.

Indeed Ghana has won four AFCONS under local coaches, but who are these coaches? Three of the victories, two in the sixties and one in 1982 were all won by Mr C. K Gyamfi. This is a gentleman who played for Asante Kotoko, but at an early age, was ambitious enough in coaching to establish his own football club and become its player coach, managing to take them up to the first division as it then was.. He later played for Accra Hearts of Oak and then proceeded to Fortuna Dusseldorf to become the first African footballer in the German league. When he retired, he was sponsored by Ghana to obtain his coaching badges immediately and then came back home to coach the Black Stars.

In terms of experience, training and outlook, Ck Gyamfi was no different from any other top European coach. He was at the cutting edge in terms of football knowledge and team building. His coaching manuals became coaching “bibles” all over Africa and indeed, when the German Rudi Gutendorf took over the Black Stars in nineteen eighty six, he expressed surprise that he was needed in Ghana at all when CK Gyamfi was around. After all that he achieved in Ghana, and despite being internationally recognised and respected, CK Gyamfi was left to wander off to try to make a living in places like Somalia and Kenya while our national team struggled, but that is another matter.

The fourth AFCON was won in Accra by Mr Osam Duodu in 1978 in the late stages of the Kutu Acheampong era. It is interesting to know, that the Ghana team, all local players at the time, had been camped in one of Brazil’s famous football academies, under the supervision of a Brazilian football professor (yes, they do have football professors in Brazil) for close to two months in preparation for the tournament. We had never prepared for a football tournament that well before in our history and have not since. Interestingly, the same Osam Duodu was in charge when we were kicked out in the first round of the next tournament in Nigeria. The point I am making, is that it is only sheer coincidence that we happen to have won four AFCONS with local coaches and not because our local coaches have some special skill suited for the AFCON.

The Ghana team that won the AFCON in 1982 had just two foreign-based players – George Alhassan who played for FC 105 in Gabon and Emmanuel Quarshie who played for Zamalek in Egypt. Cameroun also had two Frence-based players. It was in the next competition in La Cote d’Ivoire in 1984 that the influx of foreign-based professionals started with Cameroon winning the competition with 5 Europe-based professionals and a foreign coach. The rest, as they say, is history. Ghana’s relationship with foreign coaches started from independence, but we must not lose sight of the numerous administrative hiccups, sheer organisational incompetence and the corruption that has often frustrated many a foreign coach.

It is interesting to observe, however, that Hassan Shehata, the only other African coach to have equalled CK Gyamfi’s record, has, like CK Gyamfi, always relied on locally-based professional footballs. In fact, Egypt does not suffer the kind of mass exodus of players prevalent in West Africa. In the 2010 AFCON, only three of the Egyptian players were foreign-based while Ghana had a mainly foreign-based team. Why are Egypt’s best footballers not keen to go abroad? It is because they just don’t have to. Their local league has developed to a point where the players are comfortable and well-paid in Egypt and training facilities are better than any Ghana can dream of.

That brings us to the question – does it matter what colour of skin a coach has on our bench? And the answer to that is, that it does not matter one jot. Even England, the home of football, has had to resort to foreign coaches at some points in their recent history. The idea that we can somehow turn our search for national coaches into exercises in jingoism and xenophobia baffles me. We need the best-qualified individual for the post and at the moment, with the quality of our football league, the training facilities we have and the one-week training courses we organise for coaches to earn a coaching certificate, unfortunately, the average local coach in Ghana is way behind his foreign counterpart, if the latter has been coaching in the European top division.

I am not proud to say that, but it is the reality. It is not as simple as just picking the next available black man, making a lot of noise and hoping for the best. It is about track record, proven competence and achievement at the highest level of coaching. What we need to do is to deal with the problem from the basics. Mr Kuffuor did well, building the Tamale and Sekondi Sports Stadia. Every region in Ghana has to have a top class stadium, complete with modern training facilities. We need to seek the funding and invest in our local leagues to whip up interest so we can increase remuneration of our players. We need to have a West African College of Coaching with strict entrance criteria and world class teaching and examinations, to train our coaches for the future.

England have tried to solve their own problem by building the 100 million pound St George’s Park complex at Burton which is not only a coach- development centre but also a training home for all their national teams. The centre has ultra- modern facilities for coaching, Sports Science, Sports Medicine, Sports Psychology etc. It was built in response to the realisation that England was falling way behind other European countries in terms of coaching capability and technical ability. So it is not easy! We may not have 100 million pounds, but we sure can start from somewhere.

Papa Appiah

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