Opinions of Sunday, 25 February 2024

Columnist: Ilyaas Al-Hasan

John Mahama should come again with his pledge to build Black Stars with home-grown players

Presidential candidate of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama Presidential candidate of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama

Before a presidential candidate comes out to make a policy statement, it's crucial to be well-briefed by people within the party and his circles with the requisite knowledge and know-how in that sector to better make an informed decision.

Following the abysmal performance of Ghana's senior national team, the Presidential Candidate of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama, recently announced the plan of his administration, to build the Black Stars with home-grown players, should he become president of the country again.

He said this without actually telling Ghanaians how he plans to achieve that, which is weird.

This is because, you don't expect such a promise to go down our throats hook, line, and sinker from you without providing exactly how you intend to do that.

It's an open secret that in our current dispensation, it will be highly impossible to keep locally based players for like 3-4 years, to get a strong team for the Black Stars. Compared to in the past when playing the national team was more of pride than monetary, our players today are getting attractions all over including African countries like Tanzania, DR Congo, Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia, South Africa, et cetera.

Today, every player aims to get a lucrative deal to make money to take care of his family.

But because the local clubs lack the financial standing to do that, any relatively good deal from Europe or even an African country is enough to attract the person to leave the country.

So unless the NDC comes out with clear criteria in that respect such as taking a bold political commitment to dedicate a huge funding pledge to take care of the welfare and payment of such players as a complete paradigm shift to the current status quo, that is likely to tie some of them down for some years before they try making a move outside.

Other than that, it may just be one of those sweet promises just to attract votes.

If I may ask, what effort did the former president take to implement the Justice Dzamefe Commission's report, the investigations of which were occasioned by the 2014 World Cup fiasco in Brazil?

So Mr. JM, please come again, as the electorate is getting more and more sophisticated now.