SUDAN 2011 CHAN "WINNING THE WOODEN SPOON" Pt II

Sometimes the passion of football has a way of leading to unremitting stupidity which in this case was evident when Coach Herbert Addo was initially appointed as the Head Coach of the Local Black Stars and subsequently when he finally named his squad for the CHAN. That is not to say that many of the issues raised on the FM Stations, written press, electronic media and on some television networks in particular were not valid but it was blatantly obvious that there was a well funded undermining agenda setting motive being pursued too.  And these were the same FM Stations that had previously hailed the performances in the 2010 World Cup as successful despite the fact that we did not win anything except denigrating and pathetic world sympathy.  And were equally swift in denouncing people like me, for decrying the overwhelming public support of mediocrity.

It was so unfortunate, but at the same time Coach Herbert Addo did himself no favours either by accepting the post and conveniently believing that he could do two coaching jobs at the same time.  And the fact that the Ghana Football Association also allowed this scenario to exist was also an indictment upon their management capacity, vision, style and lack of professional “best practice” in this regard.  Coach Herbert Addo Also did not ensure that he had the appropriate “technical support” in the form of scouts which were necessary in assisting him in player selection and also for observing the opposition he would face in the CHAN tournament and also failed miserably in ensuring the Technical Director of the Ghana Football Association was kept abreast of his national coaching programme. 

There was also none or minimum selection criteria in force which is clearly visible in some of the players that were eventually selected and excluded.  And the Kenyan two week tour was indeed a farce and a total waste of tax payers’ money and the results of the matches were no better than what was achieved in Sudan. To add insult to injury Coach Herbert Addo had to break camp to attend to other duties in the CAF Champions League where he led League Champions Aduana Stars FC to a resounding walloping from Wydad Athletic Club of Casablanca more popularly known as WAC of Morocco by 3 goals to 0 before returning to tend to national duties.  Can you believe that?  Well am sorry but that was absolute twaddle!

So now if we go onto boldly declare that locally we have no coaches suitable to handle any of the National Teams as has been the case for almost the past week, in doing so we are also condemning the fate of the local players too on the basis that only the best players had been selected to represent Ghana in the CHAN.  And so of course when one considers the circumstances of our elimination I have to agree that they hardly performed as if they were the best that Ghana had to offer. But the fact of the matter was that this was not the case anyway and without a proper scouting system could never be.  Many of the better players were left at home in favour of players that were considered to be more marketable and would earn their respective Club Coaches a handsome percentage if picked up by the scouts at the tournament.  But let’s not fool ourselves because this is something that has also happened before when selecting players for the Senior National Team for the Ghana Black Stars in the not so distant past.

And, what about the role of the Technical Directorate in this debacle?  Well it appears that the influence of the Directorate on the Administrators of the Ghana Football Association is nonexistent and that apart from overseeing the various courses I made mention of earlier on in this piece the Directorates role and sum total value and expertise has been undermined, compromised and ignored and so Ghana football Association Administrators end up making technical decisions which they are not suitably qualified to make.  Now that the Coaching Association of Ghana is dead and buried by leading coaching advocates of the game there is no tangible means of supporting the cause of the local coach within the system, a situation that the Technical Directorate must seek to change if we are to regain our credibility and respect.  The constant bickering and backbiting amongst this fraternity in particular has to be halted and those coaches who consistently take money from players in order to allow them to play at club and national level exposed if they are not willing to bring this practice to an end right now.  We all know those coaches I am referring to and how prominent they are within the football fraternity.

Let me also advise the Technical Director that in future he cannot continue to act in isolation but must surround himself with competent supporting technical staff responsible for overseeing the lower tier divisions, youth football and women’s football too.  We also need a blue print in support of the principle of the establishment of 10 Regional Football Academies for boys and girls and a concrete infrastructural development plan which would seek to schedule the development of the much needed playing facilities we so desperately need.  And by the way can we also start preparing for the CHAN qualifiers now!

Nana Kwaku Agyemang is a UEFA B Licensed Coach, a Level 1 and 2 coaching educator and one of Ghana's most respected commentators and pundits.