A family friend I met on the eve of 2016 passed a comment that resonated with me “Afeyia Paa Oo Afi sesei na BBC fou afa wo ajuma mu.” To wit “Happy New Year. May you be employed by the BBC next year.”
First thought that occurred to me was “whoever told you that working for the BBC represented the pinnacle of the job as far as I was concerned.”
The longer I thought about it the harder it became to comprehend how we ended up in this cerebral abyss when one of the most dominant conversations across media platforms was the talk of creating, utilising and maximising the potential of local content.
I am not about to give you a long drawn out talk about the NDC government sorry and their shortcomings.
The local Black Stars as we have chosen to tag them is my subject of interest.
As I scrolled through my thoughts on which competitions would be worth keeping an eye on for the year, reality hit me.
Ghana will not be present at the 2016 African Championships in Rwanda.
I realized that this Local Black Stars team made up solely of home based players will watch the rest of their counterparts from across the continent from their screens at home but then again it dawned on me that on their current salary scheme most will not even be able to afford the cable that broadcasts such games.
As things stand now, the managers of this team the Ghana Football Association, are more interested in playing the politics of the game against the people that make the game what it is rather than running a well-oiled machinery that is our local game.
In my mind, one of the greatest moments in this nation’s football history will be when we are able to parade a world class starting 11 made up solely of players who ply their trade in Ghana and are fully satisfied with their situation as footballers.
Don’t get me wrong I am not against globalisation and the added benefits that come along with it but I do believe that before you can help tidy another man’s house yours must be in shape.
In Ghana, the abysmal economic situation that awaits a footballer either by circumstance or by fate when he decides to stay here to pursue his trade is the most common reason you will get for why playing in the Barclays Premier League or Spain’s La Liga is a more feasible option.
This school of thought cuts across all sectors of the economy and not just the football industry.
So deep rooted is this mentality that most believe that once a player leaves the shores of this country to play abroad he automatically morphs into a player better than any on the local scene and is more worthy of a spot in the Black Stars than his former team-mat who is still in Ghana.
When you do not travel overseas to learn, pursue sports, romance, business and even religion, the perception is that you are not quite the finished product.
I find this frame of mind scandalous and ask myself that with this attitude we probably will sound like broken records when we discuss these issues 30 years from the day you are reading this .
We have proved incapable of setting up and maintaining our own systems and structures right from the year in which football was introduced into the country in 1903 by the British.
Cape Coast Excelsior was name of the first football team in Ghana. They played in caps, Jerseys , and boots.
As soon as Ghanaians were able to independently organise their own league matches, the various clubs that existed then, including the national team in their 1951 tour of Britain, decided that using football boots, one of the most essential apparel needed to play the sport was not important and thus played barefooted, according to Ken Bediako’s The Complete History of the Ghana Football League.
The Coaches
This same trait is exhibited in 2015 when head coach of the Local Black Stars Maxwell Konadu who also doubles as assistant to Avram Grant decided that between staying at home to prepare for a difficult CHAN qualifier against rivals Cote D’Ivoire and showing up at the side of his boss in a friendly game against Canada in the United States, the latter was a more sensible thing to do.
His reason was that his two assistants were perfectly comfortable with the systems and would not require his presence.
Ghana played out a draw against Canada in the friendly to the surprise of no one and struggled to overcome an early deficit to grab a 2-1 win at home in Kumasi.
The irony of the situation was that Cote d’Ivoire, the reigning African Champions, had their main national team head coach Michel Dussuyer in charge of their “local team”.
This affords him a great opportunity to view, interact and also research in-depth on players eligible to represent the nation.
His presence in that dug out has the potential to eliminate any form of inferiority complex that exists in the minds of the local Cote d’Ivoire team and also allows the national program to be a better synchronized unit.
Back in Ghana, for reasons best known to the FA, the ‘expatriate’ Black Stars and the local one required different head coaches.
But of course, Ghana had placed second in the AFCON in Equatorial Guinea and this was also after handing Israeli Avram Grant the job a month before the tournament so those of us who complained about that outcome were likely to be branded ‘ungrateful’.
The conversation among a huddle of journalists assembled in the press box at the Baba Yara Stadium for the first leg of the 2016 CHAN tournament qualifier between Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire prior, during and after the game made a number of things clear.
The outcome of the first leg, the ‘strange’ selections which included the exclusion of the league’s best player that year, Eric Opoku, as well as derisory preparations and the general air of apathy surrounding the team did not seem to perturb the FA.
This was quickly countered by this argument: ” Did Joel Fameyeh of Asokwa Deportivo’s brace not convince you of the coach’s eye for talent and the quality still available in our league ?”
Whether Konadu’s selection of Fameyeh was a masterstroke or the end product of certain unknown factors you and I are as close to finding out as this country is to being regarded as a world super power.
The return leg in Cote D’Ivoire ended in a 1-1 draw with the Elephants progressing on the away goal rule.
Measuring Success
Ghana had for the first time missed out on the CHAN tournament.
According to a few opinions I had heard, a silver medal in the maiden edition as well as a bronze two years later meant we could be described as Golden Boys in the competition, only problem is we did not have gold.
After several murmurs from some sections of the football fraternity, the GFA came out to perform the usual “We will sit and have a talk with the technical team on why we have missed out on the tournament” line.
Just in case you are unclear what the team had been up to before this colossal collapse you only have to track back a little in time to find the mess that was the COSAFA Cup.
Ghana lost 2-1 to Madagascar in the opening game and were thrashed 3-0 by Zambia in the semi finals to compound matters.
The Golden Boys of African football retreated with their tails between their thighs to lick open the wounds that would eventually be dabbed with salt by the Ivorians.
Our football has become such a terrible maze of confusion that it almost seems impossible to write on it without getting entangled.
If the attitude and mindset of the Ghanaian from the President to the unborn towards sports, and football for that matter, does not change from the game that is merely an act of recreation and a tool for forging political and diplomatic ties to one that can compete as a commercial product, then we labour in vain.
This way of thinking creates an enterprise where certain individuals can assume absolute control of the football machinery in the country and call shots that benefit them while feeding the citizenry “The Black Stars belongs to Ghanaians and its all we have so let’s cling to it” theory.
Do you feel like you own the Black Stars or for that matter any of our national teams?
Verdict
Preparations before the CHAN qualifiers were poor, the coach placed in charge to oversee affairs of the team would rather be a sidekick to oversee a friendly match than take charge of a competitive one.
The criteria for selection could not have been based purely on merit at least not according to the Awards ceremony organised by the FA themselves.
To top that, the coach was shielded from taking responsibility for the situation and even prevented from explaining the situation to Ghanaians, the people who purportedly own the team.
At the press conference held to review the first year of Black Stars head coach, Avram Grant, the GFA again through their spokesperson Ibrahim Saani Daara decided that Maxwell Konadu, who accompanied his boss, was only there to give moral support and thus was not to be disturbed with questions relating to the local Black Stars.
“You can’t put Maxwell on the spot, he is only here to support coach so that question won’t be answered, next person please, “he responded when I asked the coach to give 3 justifiable reasons why he should not be fired for our elimination.
The bottom line is I still believe Maxwell Konadu is still one of the more astute tactical brains in the country but has shown clearly that his interests with this team are not necessarily getting results on the pitch.
Avram Grant is head coach of Ghana and should climb of his global coaching horse and ask himself if it is fair to the people of this country to pocket $50, 000 every month while you globe-trot and watch players whom he has worked with on several occasions while we continue to scout opponents via video.
His response to this assertion by the media reeks of petulance.
“I will stay outside Ghana 365 days if it means that our best players play outside the country.
The talent exists in abundance here. They might be uncut but it does exist and for talent to reach full potential, there must be an efficient and sustainable system that churns out and maintains this talent.
Leaders put at the helm of these systems must demonstrate an insatiable desire to serve the nation by putting its interests first while availing themselves for evaluation and constructive criticisms.
The national football agenda must be in sync right from the virtues and vision to the philosophy that will guide the sequence.
Only then will Ghana play the mythical “agro” football that I have heard so much from our elders but still not witnessed personally.
Then maybe Ghanaian players will feel proud to announce to the world that Ghana is the place to pursue a career in the sport with regards to respect, remuneration and self satisfaction.
By Benjamin Nketia
Follow on twitter @KojoNketia