Ghana Football Association In A State Of Confusion?

Once again, and not a surprise, the Ghana Football Association is explaining to the world why it has still not recovered from a “triple-bypass surgery” after a catalog of failures shifted a nation into a state of mourning.

First, the “CAN 2008 host and win” pledge failed, and the coach who was to make this happen also “run away” to coach the national team of Oman.

The latest- shifting Ghana’s football administration problems to Europe, the precise destination – Holland, to interview “wannabe coaches” (not long-term, committed coaches anyway).

Ghanaians must speak up against the waste, and Nyantakyie’s confused schedule.

There is something wrong in Ghana which needs immediate redress, especially how Kwesi Nyantakyie has been given all these powers to make mistakes upon mistakes, while football-loving Ghanaians monitor this confusion without bringing him to order.

The search for a new Ghana coach is becoming more complex and confusing than the GFA itself.

The latest news is that, the GFA is moving the interview base to Holland, for which pundits believe, is just part of the scheme to reaffirm the long-standing “Kolulu” (tricks) and inefficiency of the present Ghana Football Association administrative set-up.

It’s all about “politics of per diem”, and ensuring for themselves a trip to Europe. People should now understand part of the reasons why they do not even want to offer a local coach the opportunity to handle the Black Stars.

Can GFA justify why Sir Jones Attuquayefio, Mohammed Polo, or Sellas Tetteh would be interviewed in Holland, and not Accra or Akosombo? Local coaches would not facilitate such a trip, per-diem, and venue.

Is the GFA telling Ghanaians that there is no suitable place in Ghana where these foreign coaches can be interviewed? Is GFA not bold enough to digest constructive criticisms? Will the so-called “would-be coach” operate from Europe after the interview process, and that Ghanaians would not justifiably criticize his performance?

I think the NDC in spite of its bad human rights record, through the hardworking Honorable E. T Mensah, MP for Prampram/Ningo, ensured that the GFA was in a better shape before it was voted out of office.

The Ministry of Education and Sports in Ghana should be more proactive and engage the present administrators of Ghana soccer in mutual, respectable, but intelligent exchange of ideas to reverse some of these embarrassing shortfalls.

As it is now, it appears the GFA waits for some months to allow matters to hibernate, and reverses into its original “goofing” outlook.

Sometimes, I wonder why politicians continue to supervise mediocrity, and do not learn from mistakes of the past. They let the aura of those mistakes hunt them during elections.

If the present government supports the GFA financially, advising the association would not be an unfavorable “intrusion” guided by the limitations imposed on it by FIFA.

This is how soccer administration and the words of politicians meet to shape public opinion.

First, the people of Ghana are being told, they should patronize made in Ghana goods because the patronage of foreign goods affects local industries, hindering their growth and job creation.

Politicians also say, Ghanaians should be empowered so that they would acquire the necessary skills to meet 21st. Century challenges, and yet the foundation, the basis upon which all these attributes can be developed to yield positive outcomes are suppressed by the very people placed in higher authority.

Subsequently, the people witness how the Ghana Football Association does not even want to entrust the care of Ghana’s senior national team to a Ghanaian, let alone an African. Opinions are shaped through good examples, not through selective justification.

The story must be told; that Ghanaian or African coaches can be interviewed in Accra, Ghana. And this waste of resources being supervised by Kwesi Nyantakyie’s Ghana Football Association must come to en end.

It was Nyatakyie who also explained to Ghanaians, that former coach Claude Le Roy was asking for a salary for which Ghana could not afford. It was the same person who said for Ghana to have a good coach with good track record (and a license A), the obvious choice-a foreign coach, must be well paid.

But Nyantakyie cannot argue on the same premise for a local coach, hence his obsession with this foreign coach approach. Now, we are being told the cost of interviewing foreign coaches in Holland would be cheaper?

Of the two men mentioned as prospective Black Stars’ coaches –Ralf Zumdick of Germany and Josef Hickesberger of Austria, the GFA must equally list their achievements as Ghanaians have the right to know the full details of their coaching career.

I will not comment on Zumdick because he’s coach who craves for young talents and success. But what did Josef Hickesberger achieve at “Euro 2008” to warrant a GFA interview?

Perhaps, the link emanates from one philosophical source- “Host and Win”. Ghana’s CAN 2008 bronze medal, Austria’s “co-host and win” achievement- “a disastrous finish” – no medal.

The GFA is even “afraid” to mention the other three coaches short listed for the Black Stars job. What is so secret about their names? And Kwesi Nyatakyie wants Ghanaians to believe this “Kweku Ananse” (tailor-made) story?

It is, indeed, glaring that our Football association needs some adrenaline, some injection of nationalism that goes with reasoning to solve this Ghana coaching saga.

No Ghanaian was even short listed for the job, and Ghanaians are quiet about this?

This latest GFA fallout – “The Holland interview process” is another useless adventure which cannot pass without comment.

And Professor Fobih, the sector minister, an unbiased gentleman who fixed a lot of problems at the University of Cape-Coast should come to the rescue of these “faulty youngsters”.

The Professor Fobih I know, who would help prospective students to gain admission to the University regardless of their family’s financial status, religion, ethnicity, or “lookism”, should work hard to bring to an end this lackluster performance on the part of Ghana Football Association (GFA) officials.

This “foreign state of mind syndrome” is the GFA’s major bane; they do not even develop a critical eye to take a deeper look at successful Ghanaian and African coaches.

But let’s not look far, oil-rich Nigeria is even tired of foreign coaches, not from the financial standpoint, but motivated by the Nigeria Football Association’s commitment to challenge local coaches to do better and reach the international lime light.

If truly the GFA does not believe in Ghanaian coaches, why not African coaches? Guess who is coaching the Malian National Soccer Team? His name is Stephen Keshie of Nigeria.

I think the GFA is on a “life-support”; so far, its commitment to naming a substantive coach for the senior soccer team of Ghana has been palliative and solely dominated by a desire for a foreign (non-African) coach, preferably an “Oyibo man”, as Nigerians would say.

And this is a country challenging its citizenry to reach greater heights by taking advantage of the opportunities therein? We must be joking.

Author, formerly of the features desk, Daily Graphic, Accra, Ghana.