A former management member of Ashantigold Sporting Club, Mr Yiadom Boakye Amponsah, has urged the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to initiate a 10-year sustainable development programme designed to tap and groom soccer talents at the grassroot level.

That, he said, would not only provide the platform for future national players to hone their talents at a tender age but also inculcate scientific methods of the game in them to compete favourably with other players around the globe.

“If we start now, in 10 years’ time we will arrive at the world stage in a more powerful manner to make a greater impact than we have been doing now. This is because we have the skills in abundance, so grooming them to become superstars will not be difficult in any way,” Mr Amponsah told the Graphic Sports in an interview.

He said soccer is now big business, hence the need for the FA to invest heavily in it.

“We need to prepare the foundation well enough to enable us to take the world by storm. That is why we need to return to the colts and develop it. We need to progressively monitor players, improve their skills and guide them to play scientifically,” he stated.

A former player of defunct GIHOC Stars of the 1980s, Mr Amponsah said Ghana had not fully exploited the potential benefits of Ghana’s participation in the 2006 and 2010 tournaments by failing to assess the country’s performance at those tournaments to determine the gaps and how best to fill such gaps ahead of the 2014 tournament in Brazil.

“We went into the 2014 World Cup with our previous performances only as our biggest strength, hence our abysmal performance at Brazil 2014.”