The Nyantakyi’s Coconut-Head GFA

Undoubtedly, coconut-head policymakers have alter egos which lead them—albeit falsely—to believe that the policies they put in place are the best among other possibilities. For them, realities cannot be real. They can quickly see the specks in other people's eyes but refuse to see the logs in their own eyes. In fact coconut heads tend to be experts in buck-passing; in that, they are always stuck in the bubble of illusions to the point that incompetence, corruption, and lack of internal controls mean exact opposite in their universe. If the preceding descriptions remind you of the current GFA's clueless managerial pathways, then we may be sharing the same line of thinking.

To be fair, under Nyantakyi-led GFA, Ghana has featured at the FIFA World Cup on three consecutive occasions—2006, 2010, and 2014. On the basis of the World Cup qualification alone, the present GFA, led by Nyantakyi, have done relatively great job. For instance, let us consider the era predating Nyantakyi's soccer administration in which Ghana made several attempts to qualify for the quadrennial soccer event but all the efforts ended in failure.

These accomplishments, notwithstanding, do not insulate these GFA coconut-heads from fair criticisms. To assert that Mr. Nyantakyi and his minions at the GFA secretariat are visionless to creativity and contemporary soccer management is not an overstatement. Anyone wonders that at the time of writing this piece Mr. Nyantakyi is desperately looking for help in Europe regarding innovative ways to develop Ghana soccer he has helped to run it down?

Like many of their predecessors, it looks as if the current GFA's preoccupation and only benchmark for measuring success vis-à-vis soccer development in Ghana is how to qualify for the CAF Nations Cup and more importantly the FIFA World Cup competition. Investing and developing sports at grassroots level, such as youth soccer academies throughout Ghana backed by modern stadiums take the back seat, even if they are considered at all. Closely looking at the mediocre trajectories of the nation's premier soccer league in the recent years, it has dawned on many concerned Ghanaian football fans that Nyantakyi and his coconut-heads at GFA have entirely different goals other than developing and empowering competitive football in Ghana.

The result of this disturbing soccer trend is that as of now many Ghanaians spend more of their pastime watching British premier league and other European sports than wasting their time on dysfunctional soccer league system in Ghana made worse by the present GFA. Thus, it is a paradox in its urban familiarity to hear these coconut-heads GFA complaining cynically about incompetence and lack of self-confidence regarding local coaches to manage the Black Stars. It is a matter of “charcoal pointing out how dark a kettle looks like.”

Listening to an interesting but outlandish argument by the GFA spokesperson Ibrahim Sani Dara on the Joy-FM Ghana Connect on Friday 20, 2014, I was surprised and the same time sad for Ghana soccer. It was surprising because how could a clueless person with this kind of simplistic thought process get the chance to speak on behalf of a sensitive soccer institution such as GFA? The sadness stemmed from the damage Ghana football in general is undergoing with its attendant waste of public funds because of these coconut-heads' below average performance clothed as soccer progress. Indeed, throughout his participation on the radio show, Mr. Ibrahim Sani did not make any disclaimer, which meant that all the assertions he made reflected the official position of the GFA.

According to GFA, as implied in Mr. Sani's contributions to the Joy-FM's discussions, many of the so-called professional Ghanaian players are millionaires, so in the locker room or on the field, it is usually difficult for these players to accept instructions from their not-so-rich local coaches such as Akwasi Appiah. Put in another context, a lot of these super-rich players view the local trainer with contempt because of the latter's relatively low economic circumstances. If GFA entertains or shares the foregoing mindset as some Ghanaians are tempted to believe, then Ghana soccer is, indeed, in an irredeemable mess.

Modern soccer thrives on discipline and the psychological state of the players' mind. The coaches, no matter how competent we think they are, if their players are not mentally focused and disciplined as many of these African players are found of showing, employing the services of a so-called first-class coach will not lead to any remarkable result. This presupposes that the coconut-heads GFA's rush to hire a foreign trainer who will “hit the ground running” as Mr. Sani forcefully emphasized during his appearance on the Ghana-Connect FM Show, is a mirage gesture, to say the least.

Hopefully, GFA will seriously think about hiring well-qualified social or perhaps clinical psychologists to help in the reorientation of the mindset of the widely-talk-about professional players for them to understand the value of accepting and having confidence in their people. Lionel Messi or Ronaldo is far, far richer than all the Ghanaian professional soccer players combined, but Messi listens or respects the views of his local coach at the national level. Why is it hard for many of the rich and famous Africans in general respecting their own people or following the instructions when on national teams?

Let us wrap up here and hammer home once again to the Nyantakyi-led GFA that the problem with the Black Stars or Ghana's dismal soccer as unfolding before our eyes now cannot be fixed by a foreign coach who has no peculiar set of Ghanaian cultural experiences and circumstances. Certainly, the runaway former Serbian coach of the Black Stars, Milovan Rajevac, can't single-handedly save the national soccer team. It was the players' determination that got Ghana to the quarter-finals in the 2010 World Cup and not because the Serbian's competence.

Let the coconut-headed GFA keep in mind that the problems facing Ghana soccer as a whole lay right on their doorsteps. It has less to do with Ghanaian coaches and more to do with GFA's lackluster managerial operations. It is time for them to set their priorities right: they must deemphasize corrupt practices while embracing the truth; and, engage the players in the high-level warm-up matches and avoid playing teams like Montenegro in friendlies. Ghanaians deserve better than what the coconut heads at GFA are giving them!

Bernard Asubonteng is an analyst based in Atlanta, GA. He can be reached at [email protected] or www.globalpulpit.com