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Sports News of Friday, 31 January 2020

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Kwasi Appiah to launch ‘Leaders Don’t Have To Yell’ book tonight

Former Black Star coach, James Kwasi Appiah will later tonight launch his much-publicized maiden book titled ‘Leaders Don’t Have To Yell’.

Appiah has invited some powerful personalities, some of whom played various roles in his success as a player and coach to grace the occasion at the Swiss Spirit Alisa Hotel tonight.

At the launch, Appiah is expected to reflect on key events throughout his career, as well as his thoughts on the future of Ghana Football.

Appiah has been doing a lot of media tours ahead of his book launch and earlier this week gave readers a sneak peek into some of the fascinating things they may get to read in the book.

The man who will go down in history as the first black coach to qualify the Black Stars to the FIFA World Cup (2014) revealed that the events at the FIFA World Cup tournament in Brazil which led to the suspension of two senior players (Sulley Muntari and Kevin Boateng) and to a total breakdown of law and order are captured in his book.

“One of the major problems we faced at the World Cup was when we had to be given some monies. A lot of Ghanaians think the money belongs to the government but the money is from FIFA, not Ghana. When you qualify for the World Cup, you are entitled to $8 million. In 2006, the government paid the money to the players before the world. 2010, the government again paid because when FIFA pay the $8 million it goes to the government not the players.

"What baffled me was why in 2006 the government paid because we had a white coach. 2010, there was a white coach and government paid before the tournament and in 2014, a Ghanaian is in charge the government didn’t pay to the players. Was it because I’m a black coach?” “For every success, there are so many contributing factors and this is one of them. When we go and players are agitating and angry, it’s because there was no peace in camp”, he said.

Kwasi Appiah recently lost his job as Black Stars coach after the Ghana Football Association decided not to extend his contract when it expired on December 31.

He is using his time away from active duty to promote the launch of his maiden book which he argues is a must-have for every active and aspiring footballer and coach.

Appiah also admitted that two Premier League coaching greats are the inspiration behind the authoring of his book “Leaders don’t have to yell”

In an interview with Joy Sports, Appiah revealed that he felt highly encouraged to emulate after reading Sir Alex Ferguson’s My Autobiography and Arsene Wenger’s book titled Arsene Wenger – The Inside story of Arsenal under Arsene.

“I understood why they[Ferguson and Wenger] took certain decisions and how they handled certain complex situations,” he told Joy Sports Editor, Nathaniel Attoh in an interview.

The 59-year-old, who also played for Black Stars between 1987 and 1992, said he chose these two coaching icons as mentoring figures because of their experiences gathered which were also crowned with big achievements. “They also made some very big players and managed their expectations and egos.”

“The book gets everyone close to me. I do appreciate the space I have operated in. When the results don’t go well everyone will criticize and think they know you better than everyone else.”

“What people do not know is that every decision I have taken or the way I have conducted myself is informed by something. The fact that I am calm and keep a cool demeanour doesn’t mean I am weak. In fact, quiet people are the toughest,” he said.