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
Gaging sports gains in 2024
In 10 days’ time, the year 2024 will pass as one of the most eventful years for sports as a nation.
It may be so due to the myriad of sports activities that got the various national teams and individual clubs busy with international competitions.
But one may also be right in asking what is there to show for those adventures.
Truthfully, one would prefer to walk from Accra to Tema than attempting to answer such a question.
Although there were a few gains to celebrate, the weight of failure clearly overshadows it and leaves sports fanatics in wonder land; uncertain about the direction of sports in Ghana.
Taking stock of the country’s fortunes regarding sports is more or less an annual ritual that usually provide similar answers years in and out; and this year will be no exception.
On our sports calendar, football has been the busiest with the Black Stars involved in FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFCON 2025 qualifiers.
The latter left Ghanaians heartbroken with an unprecedented outcome.
In a group that had Angola, Sudan and Niger, the Black Stars failed to register a single win; losing three games and drawing the same number to finish at the rock bottom of the table with three points.
Eventually, the group was won by Angola’s Palencas Negras and Kwesi Appiah’s Sudan.
The USA, Canada and Mexico World Cup 2026 qualifiers, however, appears to be going well for the Stars with Ghana in second position behind Comoros with the same number of points – nine, out of four matches.
Other countries in Ghana’s group (Group I) include Madagascar, Mali, Central African Republic and Chad, the whipping boys in the group.
The Stars started the qualifers well, chalking a 1-0 home win over Madagascar but was pegged back by Comoros which beat Ghana 1-0.
The team, however, bounced back from that disappointment to beat Mali 2-1 in Bamako in one of the team’s finest performances in the year under review and recorded a 4-3 victory over the Central African Republic (CAF).
At the centre of the Black Stars performance storm was Head Coach Otto Addo who came under an avalanche of criticism for the team’s poor performance.
Ghana Football Association president, Kurt Okraku was also not spared of the backlash as his resignation became the clarion call on the lips of many.
But the two have shown they have very thick skin or might have developed a ‘dead goat’ syndrome, granting them the immunity to withstand the fiery darts of their critics.
On the continental level, FC Samartex and Nsoatreman FC made attempts to rescue Ghana’s free fall but that failed to materialise as their challenges in the CAF Champions League and Confederations Cup competitions collapsed before the league stages.
But there was success for Ghana in football following gold medal performances from the male and female teams in the African Games football competition.
It appears some successes were chalked at the sub-continental level with Kurt Okraku reaping a few results from the WAFU B level.
The Golden Arms, the national armwrestling team was obviously the best team having snatched a total of 41 medals at the African Games consisting of eight gold, 19 silver and 14 bronze medals.
Boxing recorded seven medals, athletics had six, weightlifting had three medals, hockey had two, and taekwondo recorded two medals while swimming had two and volleyball, one.
At the Paris Olympic Games, it was more of participation and acting as tourists than winning medals as Ghana fell short in all the disciplines competed.
But once again, it exposed the issues about poor preparation of athletes and lack of proper facilities back home to help local athletes.
Perhaps, one of the biggest shocks was the failure of the national boxing team, the Black Bombers to qualify for the Olympics.
Generally, it was not an encouraging performance from sports in the year. It actually marked a dip in performance as professional boxing failed to produce a world champion just like athletics, taekwondo, handball, badminton, table tennis, tennis and the others failed in their respective bids.
With a new government set to assume the reins of power and sports development to be championed by a new Sports Minister, it will be incumbent on the responsible agencies for sports development and promotion like the National Sports Authority (NSA) and the various sports federations to put their act together and work towards reviving Ghana sports to its past status.
By Andrew Nortey
Sports
Resetting Ghana sports
In a few weeks’ time, returnee president, John DramaniMahama, will assume the reins of governance after taking his Oath of Office on January 7, 2025.
This follows the National Democratic Congress (NDC) historic feat in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections held on December 7.
That ended the eight-year reign of President Nana AddoDankwaAkufo- Addo and his vice, DrMahamuduBawumia, of the New Patriotic Party.
It’s been less than a week after JDM’s declaration by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission who doubles as the Returning Officer of the presidential poll, Mrs Jean Mensa, but several calls and suggestions have been flying across the corridors of power.
For bitter NDC faithful, top NPP officials who were alleged to have been involved in shoddy deals should be whisked away by the police or the respective agency in charge of investigation.
Others have urged the new team to hit the ground running in a bid to alleviate the pain and difficulties in which Ghanaians find themselves.
Followers of sports are not left out in this regard. They want to see a lot of changes as part of a mammoth agenda to RESET the nation.
This may be coming on the back of the reality that Ghana sports in the past few years have been on a backward trajectory.
At the last Olympic Games in Paris, members of Team Ghana were mere passengers and tourists. The only excitement seen on the faces of Ghanaians was not as a result of a medal won but the sight of watching members fly Ghana flags during the opening ceremony.
The celebration was about the projection of Ghana as active and regular participants at the games but always far away from the medal podium.
The height of the disappointment was the Black Stars’ failure to qualify for the 2025 AFCON – the first miss in 20 years.
In a qualifying group that had Angola, Sudan and Niger, the Black Stars under Coach Otto Addo ended the qualifiers winless – drawing three and lost same.
That is not to suggest that the other national teams are performing any better.
Apart from the national U-20 team, the Black Satellites, that triumphed in the football event of the last edition of the African Games hosted in Accra, Ghana’s success in football has been in minor competitions in the West Africa Football Union (WAFU) B region.
It has been so with many or all of the sports disciplines operating under the National Sports Authority (NSA). Athletics, boxing (both pro and amateur), handball, volleyball, basketball, taekwondo, kickboxing, tennis, table tennis, cycling etc. are experiencing similar fate.
Maybe, the only shining light is the sport of arm-wrestling, Ghana’s Messiah at the African Games.
Obviously, this is not a good record for a country that considers herself as a sports nation and clearly remains one of the first and foremost sectors that needs resetting.
What is of paramount interest to Ghanaians at the moment are the qualifiers for the USA, Canada and Mexico 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Fortunately, the Black Stars languish in second spot with an important away victory over Mali doing the magic.
Under the upcoming administration, fans must see a new composure and attitude reset to meet the challenges to qualify for the World Cup.
Football on the local scene must also see an improvement in teams’ performances and administration.
The brains administering the game must also be reset to understand and admit that the local players are capable of delivering the same results from the foreign legion at a much cheaper cost.
The other disciplines would also need massive push to come up but in all of this, sports with comparative advantages must get the nod over those that should be reduced to recreational sports.
Above all, the sector will need a supervisor with a good knowledge about the area to lead the resetting agenda in order not to lose focus or fall to the conspiracytheories of the sophisticated administrators.
By Andrew Nortey
