The United West African Team

Idriss Kameni (Cam)

John Paintsil(Gha) Kolo Toure(Cote) Mensah(Gha) Assou-Ekoto(Cam)

Eboue(Cote) Yahya Toure(Cote) Essien(Gha) Muntari (Gha)

Drogba(Cote) Eto,o(Cam)

The above is a world cup winning team. Apart from the quality of players on display, just consider for a moment what our bench would be like – Alexandre Song, Joseph Yobo, Obi Mikel, Obafemi Martins, Mathew Amoah and Solomon Kalou. No individual African country can, at the moment win the world cup. It is just not going to happen and Ghanaians who have already started dreaming about winning the world cup should stop before they get a heart attack. I mean well, actually. We just do not have the depth! May God forbid that Michael Essien and John Mensah should get injured? Who would be replacing them? No country won the world cup merely relying on its first eleven.

Our players, very much aware of the situation, have started displaying the kind of indiscipline and complacency that comes with knowing that they are virtually irreplaceable. Just look at the situation in England-Michael Owen, Peter Crouch, Jermaine Defoe, Darren Bent, Agbonlahor, Carlton Cole, Wayne Rooney and Emile Heskey- all strikers who would easily grace our team, are fighting hard, not to necessarily play in the world cup, but for the chance to just be on the plane to South Africa. Competition for places is fierce and the players would never adopt the kind of attitude our players are showing. And definitely not with Fabio Capello in charge. Angola may not have been important, but how many matches do we have between now and the African Cup? Each game is an opportunity for the coach to try new strategy and promote team bonding. Our players could easily have found excuses for not going, but going awol, well that is a different matter. It sends all the wrong messages to the rest of the team, who now eagerly await the outcome.

And we need to build our local league. The fact of the matter is that every Ghanaian playing regularly in the Serie A or in the premiership would automatically be in our team whereas Marchello Lippi in Italy has about 300 Italians to choose from in Serie A. Our top Europe-based players; and I use the word “top” advisedly, very much aware that even in the European league we have world class players like Messi, Drogba, Gerrard, Torres, Essien etc and decent competent professionals like Paintsil; are Essien, Mensah, Paintsil, Muntari, Asamoah, Appiah, Amoah, Gyan and Addo. How do we expect to get a strong competitive team if we have ten players whose places are assured because there is virtually no one else? We should be able to build our local league to the point where playing in Europe does not guarantee a place in the national team and we can easily get ten equally good local players to compete with their foreign-based counterparts.

And who said that is easy. It is not! But we must start attempting the difficult things. The promise by the current government to ensure there is a modern stadium in each regional capital is a good start. We should encourage youth development, and I mean youth and not smallish married men, not only in the national teams but at club level. If these youngsters develop properly and still want to play in Europe, then at least we will, like Brazil have over 100 top Europe-based players to choose from rather than 10. And the competition would be such that the standard at home would still be high. Much as I know that good players do not necessarily make a good team, we do need good players to form a very good team.

We need our youth supporting our local teams. I have mentioned this elsewhere to a mixed response. The fact of the matter is, when we were kids, we all watched Tony Yeboah on TV on Saturdays playing for Eintract Frankfurt. We wished him well and wanted his team to win because of him. But we did not all become “strong”Eintract Frankfurt “fans”. We supported Dwarfs, Hearts and Kotoko. My concern is the current trend in Ghana for youngsters to be “fans” of big foreign teams, to the extent that it has become almost unacceptable to wear a Kotoko shirt on KNUST campus. Ghanaians in the Diaspora should not take exception to this because I know that football fans in a foreign land would necessarily adopt teams wherever they are to enhance their enjoyment of football, especially when it is almost impossible to watch our league matches outside. However, if the current trend amongst youngsters in Ghana continues, who will be supporting our teams in the future? Rather, if we should become a middle income country, thanks maybe to Jubilee fields; the Liverpools and ManUs will be going to establish shops in Ghana, to exploit us even further.

And what quality of coaches do we have? At the national level, we have to contend with second rate European coaches. The Fabio Capellos, Arsene Wengers and Alex Fergusons are where they are for a reason. They have done it year after year at the highest level of football. You cannot ask any more than that. Milovan Rajevac? Where did he come from? Would he be considered on the short-list for England, Italy, Holland or Brazil? Why is he good enough for Ghana? Is it because we cannot attract or even afford the best? If that is the case, then why do we suddenly believe we can go and beat the very best? The coach might do well because he has a few reasonably good players but we are taking a risk that none of the top teams in the world would take. How will he do if he has to pit his wits against Fabio Capello? We just do not know.

We need to establish a West African College of Coaching or something of the sort who will offer a prestigious coaching badge that only the best coaches in Africa could attain. People who have played football at the highest international level and who pass requisite entry examinations could be fast-tracked into the programme. This college would also hold mandatory refresher courses for its members to renew their license. If this was done, we would begin to produce local coaches confident enough to hold their own against the very best in the world. It would be a start and definitely better than having to always rely on Europeans with doubtful credentials.

But if we are looking for instant results, then we have no choice but to fast forward Africa’s dream of unification with a United West African Team in 2014. Tell me we cannot win the world cup with the team above.

Papa Appiah

Lexeve@live.com