Ghana Football Association & OB Amoah Again?

By Ato Aidoo

Information trickling in from Accra, Ghana, is irritating many Africans in the Diaspora as the country’s Football Association maintains an incredible imprint as one of the most wasteful, and yet uncompromising administrative set-ups in Africa soccer.

In the West-African country, local coaches (though underpaid) continue to guide youth soccer programs, but not at the highest level. Failed policies of Ghana’s FA, led by Kwesi Nyantakyie, have reached record high without any serious intervention in sight; while some ministers of state have become part of these administrative lapses.

No individual is perfect; we just have to fix these FA blues.

In the wake of all these, a comment is obvious, especially when it relates to salary distortions and the assistant coach of the Black Stars - Kwesi Appiah, who is now under fire for making a well-deserved salary request- $6,000 a month, and other benefits. Appiah is a former captain of Ghana’s national soccer team.

The latest news is that, O. B Amoah, Ghana’s deputy minister for education and sports, has fired a salvo, issuing a “threat” to Kwesi Appiah – “accept a salary of $3,000 a month, or look elsewhere for a new job. This “threat” was to coerce Appiah into submission.

Appiah’s request must be approved without delay to redeem his confidence in a country that claims it does not keep nationalism under wraps, and continues to promote the ingenuity of its people. Appiah has a black skin, but not a “cheap” coach. He is even settling for less as the former assistant coach (a French national) was paid $10,000 a month before he left the position to become the head coach of Zambia.

It is unimaginable; a clear case of impertinence, to underplay the worth of local coaches (I have said this before); while Ghana’s Serbian coach “Milo” enjoys a fat paycheck. GFA should offer a local coach even one third of Milo’s $45,000 a month salary, attach a performance contract, and Ghanaians would be happy with their national team.

As a country, what legacy are we bequeathing to our children? Should we strive for excellence through education or a chosen career, serve with all honesty, and be treated as third grade professionals in our own country? Of course, there is a missing link, a paradox that cannot be explained, not even a sage can handle the contradiction.

O.B Amoah and Kwesi Nyantakyie represent a sharp contrast to what a “listening government” stands for; their utterances connote arrogance, and abuse of power. They are unprepared to change according to the national mood, a behavioral pattern that provides one of the means through which people malign a government.

“Power” can be used to change people’s perception, but it also “corrupts” the individual. O.B Amoah and Kwesi Nyantakyie’s management style best explains this analogy. This two of a kind have been bad managers of national business, to say the least. Surely, in the not-too-distant future, the potency of GFA’s hold on “absolute power” would decrease, while skeletons in its closet and undue interference in the work of a foreign coach would be unveiled to Ghanaians.

Nyantakyie and his cronies, for instance, influence player selection into the Black Stars, hence the inferior communist tactics that they are now using to “silence” a Ghanaian coach. Undeniably, they have a “silent war” with the Ghanaian coaching fraternity.

This is one of Nyantakyie’s game plans: David Addy played for Wa All Stars Football Club, during which he was invited to play for the Black Stars. He was later transferred to FC Randers in Denmark, and now back into the national team. David may be a good player, and there is no problem offering him the opportunity to excel in his chosen career, but guess who is behind all these? - Kwesi Nyantakyie, who also owns Wa All Stars.

How can Ghanaians trust Nyantakyie, the same individual who has created an artificial barrier for local coaches, blocking opportunities for them to excel at the highest level?

A full dossier on Ghana’s FA would be kept for posterity, but it fulfills a public duty to disseminate part of the agenda in this era of confusion. The GFA is in a total mess.

And for Kwabena Yeboah, a humble sports anchor, which would normally not join a debate of this magnitude to publicly express concern about this Appiah salary saga, shows how OB Amoah’s bad rap has attracted rage in Ghana. Consequently, Sir Cecil Jones Attuquayfio, a respected Ghanaian coach, has joined the fray, and has also spoken unequivocally, how local coaches are “mistreated” by Ghana’s FA.

For people who care about their homeland, it is only fair that they present to the world of soccer once again, the GFA’s picture of supreme immobility, lack of new ideas in the management of soccer, and its belligerent posture in terms of change and fairness.

The truth is that, GFA is still on life-support; but chances are it may not recover to purge itself of mismanagement, let alone nurture a new path to Ghana’s soccer development.

For the sake of the homeland, this crusade for change and evenhandedness would remain focus, unsettled by criticisms, and GFA’s inability to solve in a timely fashion core issues that have severely punctured a belief and love for a country.

Until change is effected, and lack of alacrity on the part of this “banza” football association is reversed, commentaries of this magnitude are inevitable until the hodgepodge of failures in Ghana’s soccer administration is replaced with reasoning.

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