Nyantakyi takes over Black Stars selection, undermines coach

By: Kwame Afful

A sickening development is hitting Ghana football and the Black Stars. Sadly this is being masterminded by the chairman of the Ghana Football Association, Kwesi Nyantakyi.

The several years of work that has made the Black Stars the most attractive football brand in Africa is being shredded by Nyantakyi few days after he took over as the chairman of the Black Stars management committee.

Nyantakyi is now dictating to the coach of the Black Stars Goran Stevanovic which players should be called into the national team. He has ordered the Black Stars coach to 'put his ego aside and call Kevin Prince Boateng' who has been left out of the Ghana squad for disciplinary reasons.

This is a complete departure from the modus operandi of Fred Pappoe whose leadership qualities helped the Black Stars qualify for their first two World Cups and made Ghana so successful on the international.

While Nyantakyi took all the credit for the successes of the Black Stars it was Fred Pappoe doing all the work. Now Pappoe is gone, Nyantakyi has had the chance to work on the Black Stars and his shocking incompetence is being exposed. Kevin Prince Boateng, according to Nyantakyi has been axed from the Black Stars squad because he refused to travel with the Black Stars to South Korea for a friendly. He claims he was injured by a day later played in a friendly for AC Milan.

Nyantakyi admitted that, the Ghana coach called Boateng to talk about his non commitment to Ghana but the AC Milan player said he was going to training and will call back.

Boateng refused to call the coach and after he missed several matches for the Black Stars for suspicious reasons Stevanovic decided to axe him but Nyantakyi has now backed the indisciplined player and ordered the coach to recall the player. The GFA boss is backing a player to flagrantly disregard the coach. For statistics, Boateng has played just two out of the nine Black Stars matches since the World Cup. Before the tournament in South Africa, that exposed him to AC Milan, he played all the Black Stars matches which gave him the chance to be signed in Italy.

We all know that since the World Cup Boateng has not been interested in the Black Stars. He gave flimsy excuses for missing key matches like the away Nations Cup qualifier against Congo, yet he wants to play in high-profile matches like England and Brazil friendlies.

Indisciplined Black Stars players like Baba Amando, Isaac Boakye and Sulley Muntari nearly destroyed the country with their acts.

But stern actions by coach Ratomir Djukovic and Milovan Rajevac instilled discipline in the team with the support of Fred Pappoe that led to the success we saw under the above mentioned coaches.

We now see that Muntari has reformed his attitude towards the Black Stars because of the way his indiscipline was dealt with.

"A big part of the reason our national teams have done well under Serbian coaches recently is the discipline they have brought. We no longer tolerate prima donnas," a Ghana football fan said on the Ghanaweb discussion forum. In football it is the cardinal sin for a player to refuse to play for his club let alone his country. Players like Anthony Annan, Dede Ayew, Derek Boateng, Kwadwo Asamoah and the rest can't toil in difficult matches like Congo for Kevin Boateng to come and enjoy the high profile England and Brazil friendlies. By Nyantakyi's actions, Kevin Boateng knows that coach Stevanovic does not have any power or authority over Black Stars players. The message is also clear to the other Black Stars players that they can be indisciplined and Nyantakyi will stop any coach from punishing them. The destruction of the Black Stars has started!

If Nyantakyi wants to settle the Boateng issue, part of the settlement process is that players must know that when they go wrong they will be punished and they must know that the coach calls the shots.

Whatever conversation Nyantakyi had with the coach should not have been a public matter. To make this public shows that Nyantakyi lacks good sense of judgment to be a leader of the country's football federation. Nyantakyi has disrespected the coach, disrespected the other Black Stars players and undermined the huge work built over the years to transform Ghana's national team.

It also shows there is corruption is the call up of players to the Black Stars. It shows that the GFA boss decides which players are in the team.

The word to Nyantakyi is clear - you are not the coach and you cannot be a coach. Allow the coach to instill discipline in the team. If we keep Kevin Boateng just because the GFA chairman regardless of the players conduct, if Muntari springs out with one of his acts what do we say to him?

No player should take Ghana for ransom. Ghana plays football at the world stage to defend our pride. The nation cannot swallow it's pride for a player because we want him to help us defend our pride.