So That We Do Not Fail Again

The World Cup is over.

After 31 days of football at the highest level, the 20 stadiums in South Korea and Japan are silent this morning. There has been drama since the opening game when unsung Senegal, in their very first appearance at the World Cup sent the World Champions to a crushing defeat in Seoul. Excitement has been galore, as in the semi-final game between Brazil and Turkey.

As the goodbye signs went up in the blue skies of Yokohama, home of the Japanese motor industry, attention turned to the next championship in Germany. For the disappointed, the pledge is to prepare effectively so that when the best 32 soccer nations on the globe are called to the industrial heart of Europe, they would not only be part, but will go and do well. Ghana definitely is in the last group. But so have we been since we became a sovereign nation and were affiliated to the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) in 1958. We were in no position to take part in the 1958 championship because the foundation was too weak to dare into the lion den of association football. In 1962 and 1966, we admired the contest from afar. We entered the contest for the 1970 championship in Mexico, where football was taken to the highest point by a Brazilian national squad that played, perhaps the most attractive football on earth.

The Black Stars of Ghana were sent crushing at home by the Moroccan national team. Since then, our preparation has always been shoddy. We only get the wake-up call when the competition is over. Like the proverbial vulture, we pledge to put structures in place for the next contest any time we fail. We could excuse ourselves at the first attempt because the whole continent of Africa of 53 nations were allowed only one representation. Then Africa were allowed two, three and now five. Yet on no occasion have Ghana qualified for the most prestigious sporting event on earth. As we search for the winning formula, it will be necessary to look at factors militating against our participation in order to put things right.

There are several of them. In the first place, the state of Ghana has never been serious with the development of the game in the country. A look at the state of the various stadia tells no story other than the sorry state of football and sports in general. Since the colonial administration left this nation with the Accra and Kumasi Sports Stadiums, we have done very little in the provision of facilities. What stand for stadiums in places like Nkawkaw, Tema, Koforidua, Sunyani, Tamale and Sekondi are too appalling to be classified as playing arenas.

One of the problems of football in this country is constant changes in the administration of the game. Every Government that has taken centre stage in Ghanaian politics, have tended to influence football administration by appointing their own administrators. When officers are appointed, they come with their own ideas about football which invariably undermine what had been previously laid down.

There is this love in this country for youth competition using over-aged players. The relative success of Ghana in the Under 17 and Under 20 world Cups have tended to influence our game in more ways than one. For a considerable long time, the mentality of football clubs in the country is to rely not on young players, but small-sized but over-aged footballers. The end result is that while other nations were building for the future, we were mainly concerned with stagnating our game by relying on footballers who had long passed their prime. Is it not a shame that apart from Samuel Osei Kufuor who managed to break into the big time from the Under 17 and Under 20 levels, none of our players who set the global youth competitions alight never reached any height? What happened to Odartey Lamptey, Alex Opoku, Mohammed Gargo, Sebastian Barnes and many others who were tipped, rather naively by experts to take the game by storm? The Ghanaians’ tendency to cheat in any endeavour is one main reason why we have failed to make it to the top. The attitude of our footballers has not helped either. With the exception of a few, the moment the Ghanaian footballer gets a contract to play in the lucrative league in Europe, he expects the local association to worship him. While someone like Abedi Pele would kill himself on the field of play to project the Ghanaian game, many of our foreign-based players refuse to play to their maximum in national colours. In the last qualifying series for Japan and Korea, evidence was clear that our foreign-based players were not interested in parading their wares at the highest stage in the global game.

On the local front, there are so many factors affecting the competitive nature of the game. I have never been impressed by the way our knights of the whistle have performed. It looks like there is covenant to favour Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko against the interest of the game in this country. These days going to watch football is an exercise in self-restraint.

I walked out of the Accra Sports Stadium when Hearts beat Mine Stars 4-0. It was not as if Mine Stars could match Hearts in terms of their penetrative power and ability to fend off attacks. What irked me was the performance of the man in the middle. He capped a rather banal performance with the award of the third goal. The ball was kicked out of the hands of the Mine Stars goalkeeper after he had made a save. The poor ‘keeper was injured in the process. But the referee standing very close to the spot, pointed to the centre circle. I was appalled and left immediately. There has been similar poor performances by our knights of the whistle throughtout the league.

The reports are strangely rampant in matches involving Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko. Is there any wonder that none of them made it to the World Cup in Korea and Japan?

I would like to believe the Ghana Football Association would be interested in how our referees are performing. They are poor, to state the obvious. Some of us, I mean my own men and women - sports writers and broadcasters - have also not helped much. Either we lack the courage to point out week in and week out, the ills of the game or we have all been caught up in the mediocrity which is now being sold on the soccer scene as they very best. If we should go to the World Cup in Germany, then we should adopt a holistic approach to problem solving.

The arrival of Milan Zivadinovic is only one point in the jigsaw. The coach can only work in a harmonious atmosphere where everybody is contributing his or her part. While his presence is a pointer to the fact that this time we mean business. It does not answer all the queries in our game. It is a start anyway. So many other permutations have to be in place for a successful assault on the World Cup qualification. We have to start with the local league. The programme ought to be unnecessarily put off at the least excuse. We must begin our preparation by ensuring that the domestic base is solid enough to provide footballers to augment our foreign playing arsenal.

Footballers ought to banish the thought that when they play for the nation, then they are doing somebody a favour. The only stage where the world notices a player is on the world stage and nothing comes higher than the World Cup. We have a duty to be in Germany when the elite of footballing world assemble in the summer of 2006. Everybody is talking of Senegal because of the dedication and valour of their players, carefully nurtured from the boardroom.

I hope Samuel Osei Kufuor is reading.