GFA is the problem not the team

This is embarrassing if not disgrace for the President of the Ghana football Association (GFA) Kwesi Nyantekyi and the other members that some of the players of the Black Stars can no longer hold their frustration and are therefore making their concern public.The two sons of Abedi Pele ,Dede and Jordan wrote to the FA to temporary retire from international football . The next day a man of integrity ,former Member of Parliament for Shai Osudoku and Chairman of the Michael Essien Foundation, disclosed that the player is prepared to return to the team if if the management create a conducive atmosphere and finally one of the controversial players, Laryea Kingston stated that the "politicians within the GFA " are making it impossible for him to return to the team, which will be another subject to be discussed later.

Rev Osei Kofi has disclosed that a decision was made by the management of the Black Stars before the tournament to drop Dede and someone within the meeting who thought the GFA were been unfair secretly recorded the decision and took it to his Abedi Pele, so when the GFA were throwing dust into the public eyes through their Communication Director Sannie Daara Ibrahim ,Abedi Pele knew his son will not be selected for the AFCON 2013 because he had the evidence already. Outspoken Osei Kofi further disclosed that the GFA members are more indiscipline than the players judging from the manner they communicate with the old players who sacrificed everything for Ghana ,considering the fact that none of the current executives has played soccer at the highest level before. Osei Kofi said Ghanaians should imagine what will be the relationship between the GFA and the players. Dede and Jordan have spoken the minds of most of the Black Star players by making a strong case and taken courageous stand to expose the rot and the foolishness of the members. The competence and skills of the management committee in managing the ego and issues affecting the welbeing of players and camping, has really come short. F A President, Nyantekyi, who doubles as the chairman of the management committee is full of nepotism and discrimination .Under the administration of Nyantekyi , Sulley Muntari, Kelvin Boateng, Michael Essien ,Asamoah Gyan and lately the Ayew brothers have all tendered in letters of retirement at the prime of their careers which does not speak well of the committee. The management committee must be dissolved to be replaced by a more competent team comprising a retired profession player of good standing, a retired old player from Ghana, coaches like Osam Duodu, Sam Arday, Abdul Razak, Mohammed Polo ,a good management lecturer from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration {GIMPA} and a member of the GFA BUT definietely not Nyantekyi and his cronies whose only interest how to fill the pockets at the expense of the Ghanaian tax payers.

The most annoying member of the GFA is Communication director Sannie Daara who keep insulting the intelligence and the integrity of Ghanaians with lies in an effort to please his paymaster and cronies with half baked truth for their selfish interest. Examples include the dropping of Dede, the breaking of the camping rules by Painstil and his domestic assault of his wife. Since when did he became the spokesperson for the players in their private issues. The Police are an independent body and he must respect that and rather try to resolve the many issues confronting the team. .

Maybe some Ghanaians need to know that the Abedi Family is very close and private one, plus the fact that their mom, Maha being a trained lawyer, they do not make decisions without consulting their parents ,so have the blessing of blessing of Abedi and Maha. They are getting a lot of play time at Marseille and they make more money playing for their club side so what is the big deal if they are not selected for the team, unfortunately that did not happen on merit but under bizzare circumstances

What moral right and justification does the GFA have to reject their letters of retirement ,when there is clear evidence that they made a decision before Dede was dropped and as for Jordan he was not even considered good enough to earn a call up to the team . Even though Alhaji Grusah and Samuel Osei Kuffour have taken a personal initiative to convince the two brothers to return to the team,but If the GFA has integrity and sense of shame, they would have begged Kuffour former Black Stars player, not to go on their behalf considering the manner they humiliated Kuffour just because he was outspoken about the welfare of the players including the quality of jersey for team during an AFCON tournament.

The GFA is poorly managed and that is very good reason for Kwesi Nyantekyi to honorable give way to more competent who can manage the team. He has also admitted that he supervised poor quality of players who lack commitment ,though he created a false impression that Ghana was poised for a fifth AFCON Cup considering the preparation the team has made

.He took a former GFA President, Dr Nyaho Tamakloe to the cleaners, because after watching Burkina Faso played their first match ,Dr Tamakloe tipped them as tounament favourites. He was being objective and not downgrading the team because he was supporting Ghana objectively and not with emotions or passion like Nyantekyi did .As an administrator , Dr Tamakloe sacked all the senior team of Accra Hearts of Oak, including Hesse Odamtten, Ofei Ansah and Adolf Armah among others bringing on(musical Youth), Ablade Kumah, the late Shamo Quaye ,Joe Addo who were sensation on the soccer scene, so he knew what he is taking about and true to his prediction Burkina Faso, were finalist beating Ghana in the semi finals.

This past few a lot of discussions took place with the Sports Minister Elvis Afriyie Ankrah ,meeting the retired Professional Football Association chaired by Tony Baffoe . The meeting was held behind closed doors which gave the old players the opportunity to tell the minister the true inside stories of the rot , greed and mismanagement and lack of accountability administration run by Nyantekyi. On the same day veteran Coach Afranie also called for a second look at focussing on the local players as well as include experience, skilful and matured players.

Golden Boy Abdul Razak blamed the players for lack of commitment and therefore called for a major shake up in the team because they lack quality and commitment and this goes to give credence to the rumor making runs that most of the players were not selected on merit or by the coach Kwasi Appiah

The truth is that Nyantekyi has admitted the cause of our failure was that the players lack quality and commitment . When did he realised that the players lack quality and commitment when GFA made the whole world believed that they will be crowned African Champions at the just ended African Cup of Nations tournament in South Africa.

Once, Nyantekyi has admitted his administration failed Ghana by overseeing selecting players who lack quality and commitment , then it follows logic that he must give way to competent ,intelligent and a good administrator who will not be able to account for appearance fees at the World Cup, entrench himself in the position , influence and select his cronies as members of the various technical teams with him chairing the most important team.

I remember very well a few years ago a decision was made to make funds available to two of some of our celebrated players Dan Owusu and Mohammed Ahmed Polo to unearth talent and produce some strikers for Ghana. For readers who are not familiar with the name Dan Owusu, formerly of Bofoakwa, he won the goalking of Ghana on three consecutive times when Nyantekyi and his cronies were just toddlers. This is a players with a lot of experience under his sleeve. As for Polo, he lead the fearsome five of, Hearts of Oak together with Mama Acquah, Anas Seidu,Peter Lamptey to five championship in a role and his name Dribbling Magicians should tell readers how good he was in his days. Because Polo is outspoken about the shortcomings of Nyantekyi, the project died at birth. The Black Stars is not a political Party. to say giving " the Minister of Defense" position to your sworn opponent will be suicidal but this is the Ghana national team and am calling of the President John Mahama ,Sports Minister and the Parliamentary Select committee to find means of removing Nyantekyi, but until then Ghana will play in all the tournaments in the world but will have nothing to show except appearance fees which they cannot account for.

The same Nyantekyi who has not kicked a soccer ball in his life, two years he was invited by the old players association to a dinner dance to raise funds for their members who are in need of financial help no member of the GFA showed up.The Wizard dribbler and nimble feet, Rev Osei Kofi was not very enthused about attitude and the treatment, so when he made the issue public he was upset with Osei Kofi . Persons like Yaw Sam of Kotoko fame suffered humiliation at the hands of the Togolese security office as well as Black Stars former captain Kwasi Owusu who was slapped by Nigerian Keeper Emmanuel Okalla in the clear view of Head of State I K Acheampong and the whole Ghana. They both received nothing for their sacrifice and humiliation .

There is an old adage that says when the fish is getting bad or rotten it starts from the head, The Ghana Football Association led by its president Kwesi Nyantekyi has been the major cause of the team's problems and the continued failure because they lack transparency ,dictating to coaches and players alike, and the neglect of the old players and above all considering the Ghana Black Stars as their own team.

Its not a curse but a reality. Passion , emotions ,lies ,disrespect ,lack of transparency are not intellectual attributes for running football administration in a country like Ghana where the game means everything to us.

The Nyantekyi led administration problems began, from they started hiring Serbian coaches who were no better than the worst Ghanaian License C coach, but he defended the hiring because of what he stands to benefit personally from the deal eventually they were fired. Nyantekyi has been hiding under the protection of FIFA to practice his corruption and the kickbacks .Its alleged that he benefit a lot in kickbacks from PUMA when he signed for the colors of our new jerseys . There is also rumor making rounds that the management committee members get the same winning bonus like the players everywhere they travel ..

I had always had a concern with the color of our national team jersey which was changed from the traditional colors under strange circumstances.

Until the government manage to deal with the rot within the GFA and use subtle means to remove Nyantekyi and his cronies from office, Ghana will continue to fail. Its a fact. Can Nyantekyi explain the reason for removing experience technical team members like Edward Ansah, Opoku Afriyie and team Doctor Engmann from the team and replace them with persons who have not kick soccer ball in their life yet are handler of the team . What is the reason for dropping players like Samuel Osei Kuffour from the team and what is the cause of former Captain Stephen Appiah and hard working Kelvin P Boateng calling it a quit from international matches. Yet these unpatriotic members of the football administration misinform the public to suit their selfish interest.

You can fool some people sometime but you cannot fool all of them all the time, when the team travels for tournamant or competition , other Ghanaians who love the game as well as the team travel on their own to see the game to satisfy their passion and support the team ,but these corrupt administration members think that they can lie to the public thinking everyone including players and supporters are blind and deaf ( special apologies to those handicapped brothers and sisters for the reference) and therefore cannot see or hear what is going on. From far away the former Captain of the Green Eagles Sunday Oliseh dropped a bombshell to the effect that Kwesi Appiah did not select the 23 members of the team that represented the country in South Africa, that should be a thought for the John Mahama and Sports Minister to ponder over.

Last week one of those irresponsible opinion leader turn social commentator Appiah Stadium dropped a hit that there were prostitutes in the camp of the Black Stars and specifically mentioned no other player than defender, John Painstil . Daari Sanni, Communications boss of the GFA was sharp to deny the claim as usual , just like he has been denying everything .In this modern day and age its a disgrace to talk about juju in camp and blame Jones Abu Alhassan who has been with football almost trying to jinx them. Yes this man was a close confidant of Maestro Abedi Pele since the time he played Real Tamale United till this day and that does not mean he will act stupid on behalf of his grandchildren Dede and Jordan

These is where the GFA must be ashame and embarrased for the the lying regularly to the public. Can the GFA be honest and tell the public circumstances which enterprising ,Andre Dede Ayew was dropped from the squad.

Am therefore calling on the government to find means of removing Nyantekyi from the office because the problems with the Black Stars is neither the players or the coach but the administration. From the selection of players there is too much influence and favoritism, to hiring of coaches in which there is no transparency and free hands to operate from a coach's standpoint but because they have to please their paymasters.

The government should listen to the popular voice because the team is not for Nyantekyi. In my life I have seen many GFA presidents including Lawton Ackah Ayensu, Zac Bentum, Kate Caeser , Sam Brew Burtler ,Ben Kuofie none is as administrative bankrupt as Nyantekyi and that is the most reason he should either resign or forced out because until he leaves Black Stars will bring nothing home, its not a curse but the truth .

Eric Ekow Okotah
USA