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20.06.2011 Feature Article

A charge on Kwesi Nyantakyi

Black Stars of hopeBlack Stars of hope
20.06.2011 LISTEN

One of the longest running sagas in association football in Ghana ended on Friday, when the Ghana Football Association (GFA) fully endorsed Kwesi Nyantakyi as its President for the second term. The incumbent head of the football family in this country was the only candidate, following the disqualification of Messrs Vincent Sowah Odoitei and Neil Armstrong-Montague.

The picture of Nyantakyi shaking hands enthusiastically with Mr. Odoitei in one of the daily newspapers indicates that peace has returned to the football family, after the threats and counter-threats that immediately followed the disqualification.

I was not at the Ghanaman Soccer School of Excellence at Prampram on Friday, when the endorsement took place. But, I am told that Nyantakyi's endorsement was received by loud acclamation of the 123- member congress of the Ghana Football Association.

It is the hope of this writer that now that the dust has finally settled on the election, the football family would stand behind the President and move the game in this country forward.

This country is the eye of football in Africa these days. After the relative impressive turn-out in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the rest of the world is looking up to this nation to pull the rest of Africa along. It is expected that the Black Stars, especially, will challenge the established order in global football in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. That is why an efficient and forward-looking GFA would have to restructure the game in this country, to enable it move into overdrive and push the frontiers of international football.

This, of course, would have to come about with innovations that would ensure that there is an effective link with all levels of the game in Ghana. The other day, when President John Evans Atta Mills called for an effective colts system to ensure a constant flow of quality players, he did not prescribe how to raise funds to nurture these players.

I have a fair idea about how to do it. The state of Ghana is still hanging on to the $11 million won by the Black Stars in the 2010 World Cup. As I keep stressing, that money is not meant to shore up our local budget. It is money earned for the development of the game. I would like the Ghana Football Association to raise the issue with Sports Minister Mr. Clement Kofi Humado.

That money can do a lot for Ghana football. I am looking at some form of grant from the GFA to some of the leading colts clubs in the country. If the GFA could get hold of the fund, and I know it is possible with the right approach, colts teams in Ghana must benefit.

It is not only colts football that stands to gain from getting hold of that amount from the government. It is possible to make the Ghanaman Soccer School of Excellence the camping grounds for all national teams. And that means making available all that is necessary to make it a first class residential area for our national teams.

By national teams, I mean from colts, Under 17, Under 20, Under 23, the Black Stars and all female national teams. If the money, which is now illegally under the thumb of the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, is released to the GFA, it would kick-start a revolution in Ghana football.

The Ghana Football Association should come out of its shell. At the moment, it looks like the association is a timid organisation that is unable to fight for itself when it is being stampeded upon by political power. I cannot believe that an organisation of a five-member functional executive and 23-member executive board is unable to marshal numbers in its confrontation with officialdom.

I am getting the impression that when the going gets tough, members are not forthcoming with their support. I am beginning to get the impression that only the President and spokesperson is around when the GFA is being clearly bullied.

In the immediate past, when some unscrupulous characters within the ruling National Democratic Congress engaged in a show-down with the football controlling body, by employing the bullying tactics of the Serious Fraud Office and its successor organisation, the Economic and Organised Crimes Office, all those who claim to be members of the executive council remained frozen in their corners. Only Kwesi Nyantakyi and Randy Abbey were around to face the bullets.

A football ruling body of any nation is a serious institution. Apart from the government and its head of state, the most important institution to the ordinary people of this nation is the GFA and its President. Go on the streets and ask any Ghanaian you meet whether he cares about the Ministry of Trade and its minister more than the achievements of the Black Stars?

Football occupies a pride of place in the hearts of the ordinary people of this nation. That is why we need men and women with steel hearts to direct its affairs. The GFA is not a place for fair weather friends. That is why I am taking this opportunity to advise the President to be careful with whom he entrusts major jobs to. It is not everybody who has the heart to stand up to officialdom. But, officialdom must be contained if it would not overstep its bounds.

As the Ghana Football Association regroups after the debacle of the year and before, it is my humble plea that men and women of steel and substance are elected into the top hierarchy of Ghana football. That is why the next congress to elect the five-man functional committee, as well as the 23-member Executive Council, would have to do a well-researched job on the backgrounds and willingness of members to sacrifice.

There is nothing like free lunch anywhere. Every job ought to be executed with the alertness and professionalism it deserves.

Writing about professionalism reminds me of the FA Secretariat.  With the departure of Mr. Kofi Nsiah, the FA secretary's job is vacant. It is taking too long to fill. I do not know what is holding up the FA. Whatever it is, it must be drummed home that the FA secretary is the Chief Executive of the soccer-controlling body. Apart from being the head of administration, the FA secretary is the person who holds the body together.

Most of the problems of the football controlling body stem from a secretariat running as if the functioning executive had decided to sabotage the organisation and it leadership. It is a fact universally acknowledged that files getting missing at the FA secretariat are rampant. Some are deliberately construed to put the organisation and its leadership in bad light.

There should be a conscious effort at changing the way the secretariat operates. And that means a break with the past. In all honesty, I do not believe any of the two deputies to Kofi Nsiah is good material to replace the departed. I have watched Isaac Addo and Alex Gyimah from close range. Neither of the two deputies is well-equipped to replace the departed Kofi Nsiah.

That is why the search for an FA secretary ought to be widened to include knowledgeable football administrators who have the heart for the job.

Lest I forget, the organisation of the game at the local level is threatening to be a farce. As the 2010/201 Premier League wound to a close, a number of ridiculous decisions put all of us in this land of our birth to shame. Ashanti Gold, for instance, lost six points on the basis that it had put on a jersey that was not approved for away matches. Incidentally, I learn that the team did that to avoid a clash of colours with Mighty Jets who were playing at home.

My understanding too is that the jersey issue is in accordance with the law governing the game at the time. One would like to believe that our laws on football would be codified alongside what obtains on the international stage.

It is a pity that in the 21st Century, clubs' reliance on juju or voodoo dictates what colours the players ought to wear. In some extreme cases, teams do not report on the field with their opponents because a Jujuman had instructed so. The modern game has moved from the medieval reliance on spiritual powers.

Let us assemble men and women who would move with the times and be courageous. Football is the national game. Let the GFA President realise the charge on him in the next five years. In the words of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, Be Bold!

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