Sports
Weep not for Black Stars, Appiah (Final part)
The Black Stars
Coaches have gone and come yet the Stars remain the Stars we have known under the previous managers.
The same applies to the playing staff which has seen generations come and gone, but not been able to add to the four AFCONs won by the 1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982 year groups.
What is yet to be tried is the advice to restart the whole process with a plan that will be centred on developing local players and making them the core of the team.
This appears a gamble the ‘football people’ are not ready to take for the fear of failing to earn qualifications or being vilified and lampooned by the fans.
But to serve the FA a reminder, this is a perfect time to embrace this idea.
It is because Ghana has gotten to a stage where fans are fed up with the players for their regular disappointment.
In fairness, this should be the beginning of a completely new rebuild with focus on the local players who already possesses the demands of Kurt Okraku. The only reason it has not been considered is the lack of faith in them.
What is needed for them will be patience from fans. This may have been tried in the past without the success rate expected because it would take a lot of time for the team to gel.
Former Black Stars defender, Shilla Illiasu, made a similar call after the match, calling for a development plan to follow to build a new team.
In Illiasu’s view, it would be in the best interest of the FA to abandon the quest to qualify for competitions in the next five years; a period within which recommendations in the plan would be implemented.
“Going forward, I think the time has come for every Ghanaian to let us understand that there is a problem with the team and in order to build a solid team, we need to forget about AFCON and World Cup and to put together a plan; maybe a five year development plan and let the whole country understand that there is a problem with the team.”
Illiasu has hit the nail right on it head. It is surely the way to go to stop going around in circles with players who have regularly shown that they lack the quality needed to get Ghana the results.
It may sound a tough call but without the luxury of foreign based players for Sudan, Kwesi Appiah has shown the way in a similar fashion; building a team consisting of home based players.
If Appiah was asked to implement this in Ghana about five years ago, he would have been among those to brush aside the idea.
But in a country with few options, he has built a team which is a point away from qualifying to an AFCON at the expense of Ghana.
Of course, that does not automatically transform Appiah into the best coach on the continent; at least he has proven that one can build a winsome team with players plying their trade on home soil.
If at a point foreign based players showed promise and wants to join, such a player must be made to fight for a role.
For now all seem lost for Ghana. For Sudan, Kwesi Appiah and his Ghanaian assistant, Ignatius Kwame Osei-Fosu, and their charges have every reason to savour the moment. They should not weep for Ghana because his blueprint full of belief in the abilities of local based players can be implemented.
Appiah’s has worn a sombre mood obviously due to his affiliation to Ghana but as a professional with a greater understanding of the game, he has every reason to celebrate with Sudanese.
The rest would be left to the ‘football people’ to take a major decision to halt the downward spiral of our game.
By Andrew Nortey
Sports
GFA issues statement on Black Star AFCON qualifying fiasco
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) wishes to express its sincerest apologies to the good people of Ghana for the Black Stars’ inability to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2025.
We understand the disappointment and frustration this failure has caused, and we share in the pain and sadness of our beloved fans. We acknowledge that the team’s performance did not meet the high expectations of the nation, and for that, we are truly sorry.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude to our loyal football fans for their unwavering support and encouragement throughout the qualifying campaign. Your passion and dedication are what drive us to strive for excellence.
Going forward, the Executive Council, at its meeting of Wednesday, 20th November, 2024, took the following key decisions:
- Immediate dissolution of the Management Committee of the senior national football team, the Black Stars. In doing so, we sincerely thank the members of the Committee for their service to Ghana Football over the years.
- The Executive Council will meet the Head Coach of the Black Stars, Mr. Otto Addo, on the 27th of November, 2024, to discuss his Technical report on the just ended AFCON qualifiers and the overall performance of the Technical team since assuming duty earlier this year.
Ghana Football Retreat
Given the passion and concern shown by members and stakeholders of Ghana Football as well as the general public, the GFA shall hold a Ghana Football Retreat to which members and all stakeholders shall be invited.
Members and stakeholders such as SWAG and the Media, National Sports Authority, PFAG, former captains and players, coaches, supporters, Football enthusiasts, Sports-related professionals (Medics, Economists, Marketers etc), and Opinion leaders (including traditional rulers) will be invited to the Retreat.
The Ministries of Sports, Finance and Education, and key Authorities such as Ghana Revenue Authority and Ghana Tourism Authority will be represented.
The meeting shall be held on the 28th of November, 2024, at the Ghanaman Soccer Center of Excellence, with the primary purpose of soliciting views and perspectives from stakeholders of Ghana Football. The output from this Retreat shall be used to develop a roadmap for enhancing the performance of the Black Stars and our other national teams.
We appreciate the support and patience of the Ghanaian people and look forward to making amends in the future.
…… END ……
Sports
Give local players the chance now
Withdrawals from national teams assignment has cast a slur on this week’s selections released by Football Associations globally.
England’s Three Lions had about six players withdrawing to take care of minor injuries suffered from the intense matches of the English Premier League (EPL), European Champions League competition and other club commitments.
Others like Belgium and Switzerland have suffered similar fate as countries prepare to honour international matches.
And Ghana’s Black Stars have not been spared in the season of withdrawals.
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) on Monday reported that many as eight players had withdrawn from the squad announced by Coach Otto Addo for a double-header against Angola and Niger.
Ahead of their first training session for the Angola and Niger games, Antoine Semenyo, Inaki Williams, Jonas Adjetey, Tariq Lamptey, Jerome Opoku, Alexander Djiku, Ibrahim Osman and Joseph Painstil all gave reasons to be excused from duty.
Inaki Williams picked up a hamstring injury on November 7 and has since not been able to train; Tariq Lamptey had a calf discomfort that got aggravated last week, and currently undergoing rehabilitation with his club; Jonas Adjetey is on his way to full recovery but had a setback in their last League game, while Jerome Opoku suffered a chronic back pain which got worse during a Super Lig game against Besiktas on Sunday.
Antoine Semenyo is nursing an injury of the patella tendon due to overload of games, Alexander Djiku suffered an aggravation of an existing hamstring that got him substituted in their last game on Sunday; Ibrahim Osman picked up a hamstring injury in his last outing for his club which got him substituted at half time with Joseph Painstil’s reason personal.
The mass withdrawals only goes to confirm calls to take a second look as the congested football fixtures European clubs and players have complained bitterly about.
Ghana has since invited six players to replace the eight that withdrawn. My disappointment, however, lies in the fact that no local player was picked among the replacement to add to the three announced in the first call up.
Asante Kotoko’s Emmanuel Antwi, Razak Simpson of Nations FC and Samartex FC’s Isaac Afful were announced in the first 23-man squad announced by Otto Addo.
That sparked excitement among followers of the local game but expected the six replacement to have at least three more of the local based professionals.
That would have increased the local representation to six and would have been in contention in getting one or two starting roles.
Otto Addo deserves commendation for extending invitations to players from the Ghana league but the time to go a step further by giving them playing chances should be now.
With a thick cloud hanging around Ghana’s qualification and hopes at an all-time low, this should be the time to put some faith in players featuring in the GPL.
Ghana should be guided by the reasons that have called for the massive withdrawals in several national teams in order to avoid such shocks in future.
Morale is low in the team over the magnitude of a task for Sudan to lose all two games and for the Stars to win all with their current form.
But those two matches remain high-profile enough for the local based players to use to justify their inclusion for places in the national team
By Andrew Nortey
