Opinions of Saturday, 4 February 2017

Columnist: www.sportsobama.com

Opinion: Disaster in Ghana Football

Avram Grant Avram Grant

Information available says, Ghana has spent over $2.2million on Avram Grant’s salary, bonuses, travels and hotels during his two year stay.
When he was appointed in November 2014, the GFA indicated that, Grant’s duty post will be Accra Ghana, and he was tasked to conduct coaching seminars for local coaches.

The GFA also explained that, Avram Grant would be technical director of ALL NATIONAL TEAMS ie aside his Black Stars job, he was to monitor training regimes and development at the (U-17, U-20, U-23 levels). For this, he was paid $50,000 from the coffers of our state-owned debt-ridden GNPC.

But stating on authority, Grant never visited any of the junior teams during training sessions. He sat in ONLY one hurriedly organised seminar for coaches and that was it.

The GFA and its sponsors rented a Penthouse at Alisa Hotel which cost nearly $45,000 every month on the Black Stars coach’s accommodation.
Nonetheless, Avram Grant spent an accumulated Two months out of his 27 month stay in Ghana. Basically, he spent 24 months at the comfort of his London home, and he was regularly seen doing punditry job on Sky TV UK.

Shocking enough, on the day Ghana Black Meteors were playing Congo Brazzavile in the final Olympic Game Qualifier, veteran Claude Leroy was on the bench for Congo, but Ghana’s supposed technical director was analyzing Chelsea match on Sky Sports,and in the end, Ghana lost to Congo and failed to make Olympic Games. That month, he was still paid $50,000 for his effort.

At a point, the GFA had to send emails to the coach ordering him to return to his post and he called their bluff on most occasions. Nobody could control him, because he was a former Chelsea coach, they say.
I understand he will fly directly from Gabon to London after the AFCON, and will never return. He leaves Ghana with over $1.8million dollars in salaries and bonuses.


Meanwhile, his employers, the GFA, and all Ghanaians, cannot for a fact, point to one legacy he will be leaving. Not one I know. He was tasked to win AFCON 2017, and help our other national teams. He was bound to fail but the blind weren’t smart, and he FAILED miserably.
When the incompetent pretend to lead, the end is always disastrous.