George Afriyie revives Brong Ahafo colts football

GFA Executive Committee member and Chairman of Brong Ahafo Juvenile football, George Afriyie, recently at the Sunyani Coronation Park conference room together with other bigwigs of Ghana football including Brong Ahafo RFA Chairman Mr. Asante, met all the stakeholders concerning juvenile football in Brong Ahafo and gave them 3 hours nonstop lectures.

The response was encouraging in that any comment by George Afriyie received wild applause. It is now good that the government and GFA are so serious about the development of juvenile football in the country.

lf Ghana want to assume the position of a football nation, there must be serious and critical development of juvenile football which in the past helped us got all the great materials to conquer Africa and the world.

l was the only media man at the event and l realized the reason why our juvenile football is on a downslide is because the Ghanaian sports media are only interested in foreign stories, they don't want to contribute even a second of their air time to promote juvenile games. They only concentrate their work where their stomach would be filled because they believe the managers in charge of the juvenile or colts football are poor and would not gain anything from them if they are given air time.

The radio stations in Ghana only dedicate their sports time promoting where they can get money, hyping players to get place in Black Stars, extracting their booties from the premier league chairmen without realizing that our local league would only be attractive if they promote and develop juvenile or colts sector.

l thought those sports presenters in Accra would follow Mr. Afriyie to Sunyani and cover the event but l saw none there because juvenile football lack riches and they would return empty handed if they did attend.

l entreat the executive committee through this respectable medium that before they honour a good sports journalist in this country or form a communication team at the FA, they should monitor those presenters who go deep to the grass root football, promoting the lesser sporting events in this country. Not those who because of their stomachs have become players’ agents, only hyping unnecessary materials for the national teams. That’s why Happy FM is the best sports station in the country.

l am not surprised that Brong Ahafo football is still progressing because if you have such resource personnel as George Afriyie as a chairman of your juvenile football, what do you expect? l was encouraged by the knowledge he imparted to all the people who were at event including even Black Stars legend Akwasi Wusu. The concerns of the questioners were all addressed and at a point l thought the late Sly Tetteh was before that huge crowd but it was G. Afriyie and to me it seems he is continuing the legacy of the late Sly.

The development of juvenile football must be a concern to all the stakeholders of this beautiful game because it is the breeding grounds for all the national teams. It came to a time, because of how strong the Brong Ahafo juvenile football was, Black Starlets did not win any global title without any Brong Ahafo player in the setup. l stand to be corrected though. The two World Cups the Starlets won in 1991 and 1995 featured Brong Ahafo players like Alex Opoku, Awudu lssaka and the rest.

So kudos to you, George Afriyie, for that great job you are initiating to help revive the game's reliable foundation. Other executive committee members must emulate him.