By Kojo Egyiri, London

It started as rumour and now that Ghana’s qualification to the World Cup is certain, it’s now almost confirmed that the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the main sponsors of the Ghana National Team, the Black Stars is insisting on the team getting a foreign coach.

All of a sudden, after the Black Stars have qualified for the Brazilian tournament, Coach Kwesi Appiah is not competent enough to lead the team. Have those who are championing this argument forgotten that there is always a first time and if we don’t expose our own Coach at that level of football, how on earth is he going to get that experience people are talking about? Those foreign coaches they are thinking of bringing to Ghana, were they also not just like Kwesi Appiah before they had their first time at the World Cup? Why can’t the Ghanaian, when it comes to such matter for a moment think of nationalism and patriotism for once?

Why has the Ghanaian always seek to promote foreigners but is quick to pull the rug under the feet of a fellow Ghanaian?

A Ghanaian Coach and a Foreign Coach, who would feel the pain of our defeat most?

We are Africans and must by now know that nothing good would come out of a foreigner for us as the old adage has it that “ the best servant is yourself”. Why the GNPC wants a foreign coach for the Black Stars is not certain but what many sporting fans are contemplating is may be because they are sponsoring the team that is why they want to dictate who coaches the team. GNPC is a national outfit; there is nothing wrong with it sponsoring the national team. Nobody at the GNPC can claim ownership of the outfit and therefore whatever they spent on the national team is national funds and in the right direction.

That is why the few Ghanaians selected to oversee the Corporation, cannot waste the national resources on a foreigner by imposing whoever he is on our national team.

For many years, Ghanaians have been advocating for a Ghanaian coach to handle the national team because it is the believe of many that at that level of football (the World Cup), every country is passionate to the extent that national teams and their coaches exude nationalism and patriotism and therefore, Ghana deserve to have a Ghanaian coach, who out of patriotism and national pride, would go any length to ensure victory for the team and could also feel the pain of the people. Why would any Ghanaian think of changing Coach Kwesi Appiah at this stage? He was there with the players throughout the qualification stages. Through thick and thin, he struggled with the player to ensure Ghana’s qualification for Brazil. Everyone thought Egypt was going to be Ghana’s Waterloo but with a good strategy and good handling of the players, Ghana has seen off the Egyptians in a very dramatic way that shock the football world on beating Egypt 6 goals to one in Kumasi and 1 goal to 2 in Cairo to qualify on 7 goals to three aggregate. The achievement of the Black Stars is what every coach desiring to go to the World Cup would be happy for but from what we are hearing, it seems certain that the Black Stars would be going to Brazil with a foreign coach, thanks to GNPC. Since when has the Ghana /Egypt encounter in Cairo become the yard stick for measuring the performance of Coach Kwesi Appiah?

Now somebody is claiming Egypt out-performed Ghana in Cairo so our Coach is not ‘ripped’ enough to lead the national team to Brazil.

What they forgot is that Ghana didn’t need to prove anything since we had already qualified in Kumasi by beating the Egyptians 6 goals to 1. The players and officials, even before the Cairo match were not certain about their security in Cairo and how physical the Egyptians were going to be. So the uncertainty that surrounded the return leg in Cairo made the players very cautious and just to make sure the Egyptians don’t qualify at their expense. Kwesi Appiah has made his mark; he was engaged to qualify the Black Stars to the World Cup in Brazil. He has done exactly what he was assigned. It behoves on those in authority to ensure that for qualifying the national team for Brazil, he would lead the team to the tournament.

Win or lose in Brazil, as Ghanaians we would be proud of going to the world cup with a Ghanaian coach in the person of Kwesi Appiah rather than a foreign coach. Ghanaians would not accept any coach from anywhere to lead the Black Stars to the world cup. It’s time we appreciate our own and not foreigners. – thenewpalaverpalaver.com