GFA, We Don’t Need Another Brazil!

BARRING any unforeseen circumstance(s) the continent's biggest football showpiece, the Africa Cup of Nations christened “AFCON 2015,” will be hosted in Equatorial Guinea from January 17—February 8, 2015 where sixteen (16) nations from the continent would assembly to showcase their football artistry and prowess.

AND Ghana will be chasing her fifth continental trophy in Equatorial Guinea where we are pegged in the same group with the Rainbow nation-South Africa, Algeria and Senegal. Obviously, every Ghanaian, especially football fans, will be expecting the senior national team, the Black Stars, to bring the cup home this time having come close to annexing it in two consecutive tourneys—Senegal 1992 and South Africa 2010—since we last won thetrophy in 1982.

HOWEVER, apart from our desire to win the continent's prestigious trophy, we at Today want to believe that Ghana Football Association (GFA) headed by its embattled President, KwesiNyantakyi, has put its house in order so as not to bring the image of the country again into disrepute as the Brazil 2014 debacle is still fresh in our minds.

IN fact, the entire management team of the GFA and the Black Stars' playing body has the responsibility to redeem their sinking image and win back the confidence of Ghanaians who are still grappling with what happened to the Black Stars at the last year's World Cup in Brazil.

THEREis no gainsayingthe fact that majority of Ghanaians,especially football enthusiasts, have lost confidence in the senior national team after their poor performance in Brazil. And this recent lack of confidence in the Black Stars was amply evidencedat the Babayara Stadium in Kumasi during one of the Stars' AFCON 2015 qualification matches where the players and the GFA were booed and jeered by the fans who thronged the stadium to watch the match.

THAT worrying situation indeed, compelled the GFA to settle on Tamale Stadium for the remaining of the Stars' qualifying matches. It is against this backdrop that we think the GFA must do all that it can to ensure that before the team and the management staff emplane to Equatorial Guinea all issues, especially about players' bonuses, are settled in Ghana.

THE GFA must also allow the coach to have a free-hand in selecting his players and it should not in any way interfere with the selection of players as had been the case in the past resulting in player indiscipline in dressing room. In fact, there is nothing the GFA can do this time to woo back the confidence and trust of Ghanaians than to re-write their damning biography in Equatorial Guinea by making sure that the players present Ghana well both off and on the field.