Ex-Ghana captain Akunnor wants more support for local coaches after calls for Kwesi Appiah's head

Published on: 16 July 2014
Ex-Ghana captain Akunnor wants more support for local coaches after calls for Kwesi Appiah's head
CK Akunnor says local coaches must be given more support to excel

Ex-Ghana captain Charles. K. Akunnor wants more support for local coaches in the wake of calls for the dismissal of Black Stars coach Kwesi Appiah after an unimpressive showing at the World Cup.

Local coaches have been in the spotlight since the Black Stars failed to reach the knock out phase of the tournament in Brazil with a native coach in charge.

Despite leading the Black Stars to their most impressive ever outing in the World Cup qualifiers, some have called for Appiah to be dismissed even though some off-the-field incidents conspired against him team.

Akunnor's call comes on the back of various discussions including the recently-organised retreat by the Ministry of Youth and Sports to look at the development of the sport in the country after the Black Stars failure at the World Cup.

Coaches are a key part of the drive to improve local football and Akunnor, who also is a coach, believes that they can meet modern-day requirements if they are supported.

“The government and everybody including the media must encourage coaches in this country. You might say that we are not as knowledgeable as the other coaches, but when we are encouraged, we can do well," Akunnor said.

"We have Ben Koufie, who is very knowledgeable, and he is a great teacher and he can teach us a lot.

"However, we must be given support in the form of coaching courses and programmes. That will build our capacity so that when the question of ability arises, we can meet the standards.”

Akunnor also highlighted the need to revive the academy system in the country so that talents can be well-honed for the benefit of the various national teams.

He explained that the modern trends of football have academies and infrastructure at their heart so Ghana must begin to place more emphasis on these things.

“We are in a different age and things are different. In my time, colts football was not that organised and we faced challenges like playing without boots and all.

We must then look at it seriously and determine that we will look at setting up more academies and adding more facilities.

This will mean that the next generation of footballers will have the right footballing education to succeed.”

Parts of this report is from Citifmonline.

Do you think we should encourage local coaches for the Black Stars? Do you think Appiah should stay? If not which local coach do you want in charge of the Black Stars? Make your views known in the box below:

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