'True' State of Ghana Black Stars (BS) Address 2013

Fellow countrymen, concerned soccer fans, ladies and gentlemen,

Ghana Black Stars once the cynosure of all African eyes and a great soccer nation is currently experiencing undulating success both on and off the field, and thus imperative that we take a diagnostic journey into what is ailing our dear team and promoting pragmatic measures to set us back on the road of ascendency. The issues confronting us are numerous and thus we all have to put our hands to the plough to get us going in the right direction instead of always engaging in a postmortem exercise only to commit the same mistakes over and over. Without much grit and determination from all of us there will be little to no progress to report or look forward to in the very foreseeable future. I’ll like to look at all the various dynamics of the team to see what the problems are as well as provide reasonable solutions to ameliorate some of these concerns, if not eradicate them altogether.

Ghana Football Association (GFA): There is no gainsaying the fact that under the leadership of Kwasi Nyantakyi Ghana has unarguably gained recognition and exposure unprecedented in the annals of the soccer history of the country, and for that we greatly applaud his outfit. However, there’s so much going on within that organization that if not checked will stifle further progress and possibly undermine the goodwill so gained. Like President Obama stated in his State of the Nation address Ghanaians don’t expect GFA to solve every problem but we expect them to put the nation’s interest before their selfish parochial interests, and to embrace the challenge of responsibly improving the BS and the tasks ahead of us. Here are the concerns I find troubling about the GFA as presently constituted and how it goes about the administration of the BS:

1. Power Struggle: There’s only a certain level to which multitasking is encouraged in every organization because of what is termed the ‘burn rate’. No one is the repository of knowledge that’s why responsibilities are shared among competent members but where we have a situation whereby people clamor or allocate to themselves all authority the end result is failure and unsatisfactory results. I know upon authority that a clandestine move was orchestrated to remove Fred Pappoe from the GFA top hierarchy, and here is the result of a ‘one-man-thousand’ situation confronting us. How can Kwasi Nyantakyi unbiasedly review, chastise and demand better results from himself as Chairman of the BS Management Committee?

2. Cost Inefficiency: Why is everything shrouded in secrecy? Whatever funds the GFA internally raises and uses for its activities is their prerogative to reveal but we the people of Ghana need to have some accountability when it comes to funds provided from taxpayers’ contributions. Why can’t we be informed about how much was provided by the government, how they were disbursed and so on and so forth? Why is it that almost every GFA official has to leave the shores of Ghana for every soccer tournament or game? Is it because of the per diem and other perks? Why are GFA officials entitled to the same or similar bonuses as the players?

3. Poor Handling of Player Crisis: Not long ago donning the BS jersey was the dream of every soccer player but why are we experiencing a situation of players retiring (temporarily or permanently) prematurely of late? What is happening? Is it an ego problem on the part of the players or the unprofessionalism, partiality, ego or intransigence of the GFA authorities? I have been on record criticizing the GFA for the poor way in which it handled the Asamoah Gyan situation. A player gets criticized by the nation, he shows little heart and mental strength, decides to resign temporarily and emissaries including Akwasi Appiah (AA) are sent to plead with him and to top the icing gets awarded the BS captainship. Why wouldn’t you want to do likewise if you think you have a little clout?

4. Managerial Ineptitude/Poor Decisions: I can say on conviction that the decision to hire AA as the BS coach was merely an act of acceding to the ‘nationalistic’ agitations of fans for a local coach. I personally do not have any qualms about that but I also believe that you don’t hand over a patient on life support to a doctor who just completed his rotation. Even if so why don’t you surround him with experts to engender confidence and provide necessary help and direction but propound the situation further by calling ‘final year medical students’ to assist him? Do you get my drift?

5. Identity: But for the names of the players and game schedule that Ghana is playing how can we really tell it’s the BS playing? What happened to the identity of the BS in terms of its uniforms or jerseys? Who signed that contract with Puma and how come no design impressions were mandated or stressed upon?

6. Future Outlook: What short, medium and long term plans have the GFA instituted to ensure that there’s a smooth transition from AA to another competent local coach if the need arises? Or are we waiting for the day of reckoning to come and then find ourselves in the conundrum of whether we have to revert to the white man or just make do with another local coach just for the sake of it? Honestly, we have to get past this attitude of poor planning but expecting manna to fall from heaven mentality. Is there a workable plan in place to assist AA with coaching assistance as we were made to believe, and if so how on track or off track is it?

Ministry of Sports: The Ministry of Sports is the governmental body that is entrusted with seeing to the growth of sports and providing assistance to national teams in flying high the flag of Ghana. It is alleged that the Ministry went over its budget by $300m and if true I strongly believe the GFA or BS were great beneficiaries of such largesse. Government or the Ministry cannot intervene in the internal affairs of FIFA sanctioned organizations but, however, if government is providing financial assistance but is shrouding that in secrecy from the people who provided those funds then there’s a major problem. The GFA in its budget proposal tried to sneak $70,000 into the AFCON 2013 games under the pretext of assisting journalists who might need financial assistance but for the vigilance of some journalists we would have been left in the dark. The budget proposal was ‘revised’ and approved by the Ministry of Sports but Dr. Omane Boamah and his people consider(ed) it wise to still not disclose what was approved and for what. If we don’t know how much was approved and for what how can we hold the GFA accountable? Let it be known that we cannot continue to operate unprofessionally and without ethics but at the same time expect positive results.

Technical Staff: If reports emanating from AFCON ’12 & ’13 are anything to go by then a lot needs to be done to revamp the technical expertise on the bench. In ’12 it was allegations of ‘juju’ and in ’13 it’s about ‘ashawoism’ – what is going on? What authoritative power do the coaches wield over the players and general discipline in camp? Apart from probably the spouses and children of the players, some limited journalists and officials why should the technical staff allow visits to the extent that players are being rumored to have had encounters with prostitutes in the hotels? Do we have the right technical men to handle the team? Do the coaches have the mental, psychological and emotional fortitude to steer the team in the right direction? What steps are they taking personally to enhance their trade or what form of assistance are they pressing for to enable them better themselves?

Players: Without mincing words I must say we don’t have that many quality players and the few that we have are also being jettisoned into inaction for reasons best known to them and the GFA. Way too many of the boys are playing in what I term ‘insignificant’ leagues and until they show a personal zeal and commitment to achieve excellence and not be satisfied with the ‘nokofio’ that their teams provide them the country stands at a great loss. I don’t want to be caught in the web of comparing eras but I must say but for maybe one or two players none of the players that participated in AFCON ’13 could have cracked the BS line up in the days of the late Shamo Quayes and Joe Debrahs much more the Abedi Peles and Tony Yeboahs. However, this is what we have so we need to provide them with all the necessary encouragement to succeed plus they should also make it their resolve to improve, look past today and aspire higher for their own gratification and the glory of the nation. I have also come to observe one worrisome issue with the boys and that’s their mental, emotional and psychological frailty. Asamoah Gyan gets criticized and one of his warped decisions is to stop taking spot kicks for Ghana, Isaac Vorsah gets criticized by a journalist and he cries foul, and the mother of all instability is John Paintsil – gets questioned by the spouse for his alleged indiscretions and it turns into ‘saayooooo’ and allegedly attempting suicide. Here are three senior players of the team with two of them being the captain and deputy captain. How can you go to war with leaders who are this unstable? Also what frame of mind do the players approach the 3rd place games? How come in successive years we reach the bronze medal zone and we lose to the same team we had beaten in the preliminaries both years? The bronze medal is also worthy and you cannot be that distraught to not fight for it. This is a big failure on the part of the players and technical handlers involved. Also did the GFA provide the players the psychologist I suggested in a previous article and which they promised before AFCON ’13?
Fans/Supporters: We have this false sense of entitlement and belief that we’re very good and thus favorites to win every competition without realistically looking at our teams, opponents and the tournament in general. Many were those who were of the forgone conclusion that AFCON ’13 was ours to lose simply because we had beaten Egypt and Tunisia impressively in the round up to the games. When the competition started we brushed aside every concern and tried to excuse our deficiencies away till Cape Verde gave us a snippet of what was to come, and eventually the bottom fell off completely against Burkina Faso. We conjured every phrase to keep hope alive, most notably, ‘God is on our side’ to ride the tidal wave of fortune till the ‘red card’ was flashed in our faces. How can your goalkeeper be the man of the match in 80% of your games? That alone is an indication that there’s a problem with the team especially the defense and midfield. We always have to be realistic in our assessments, not revel in any false hopes and provide constructive measures that will see us reclaim our past glory and surge on to further heights.

It is said that ‘it’s not over until it’s over’ and thus believe firmly that we can all contribute effectively towards our favorite pastime to solidify what has already been achieved, and to enhance it rather than see it blown into pieces. The BS is our rallying treasure and we need to safeguard it.

Carl Owusu-Barnes

(Roscoli1@yahoo.com).