Enough of the 'China made' white coaches!

If promises were trophies Ghana would have gotten a dozen under sacked Goran Stevanovic.

His promises were many and enticing but not a single one materialized. None, because they were just promises, never to be kept.

And I say this with all the conviction I can muster because that man insulted Ghanaians and sadly many including some of my colleague journalists gave in.

He told the world he will resign if Ghana failed to make it to the finals of the just ended Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and more importantly if Ghana failed to win the trophy. On his return after the Black Stars succumbed to a semi-final defeat to eventual winners Zambia, Plavi as he is affectionately called, made an outrageous U-turn insisting he never said he will resign.

I would rather he was bold to admit saying it and reminded us of this cliché which says it is only a fool who doesn't change his mind. I was ready to go along with that and not the blatant insult he shoved in our faces.

Unfortunately but not deliberately, a truncated interview of him saying “if you want me to” was played on radio as an answer to the question “would you resign if Ghana fails to win the trophy?” The question was posed by a journalist, Kuuku Yankah.

That truncated audio inadvertently portrayed some journalists, including myself as fabricating and putting words in his mouth and rather appeared to have vindicated Plavi.

I say on record that as a journalist-human as I am- I have made mistakes a few times but none, absolutely none of them can be traced to fabrication. If my December 18, 2011 story about Plavi's promise to resign was wrong and fabricated, all the stories i have done in my ten years of journalism are wrong and fabricated.

This link provides the full length of the question and answer session between Kuuku Yankah and Plavi on the day he was outdooring his provisional 25 man list for the AFCON tournament.

If there are still doubting Thomases, that particular press conference was telecast on Metro TV and we can always get the full recording if challenged. I hope it doesn't come to that.

Plavi was never my fan and I told him quite bluntly on the day he was introduced to the media by the FA that his CV alone for me does not show a person competent for the job. My only caveat was for him to prove me wrong- as if I matter in the scheme of things.

He proved me wrong, albeit for a short period with his sweet promises which sank in like the rap of a play boy to an innocent virgin girl. And what did he do in the end, he vindicated my earlier position that he is unfit for the job but only this time he insulted the collective memory and intelligence of Ghanaians in the process.

Good riddance!!!!!!!!!!! But, what next?
The departure of Plavi does not in any way resolve the huge challenges within the Black Stars and no football person needs a reminder about this. What it does however is to resuscitate the age-long debate about foreign and local coaches. And anytime that debate surfaces people are quick to say that competence is the watchword and not colour.

But I am getting increasingly convinced that in Ghana Football another definition for competence is a 'white man' and even more succinctly in recent times a 'white Serbian'.

If these coaches were that competent as the FA would have us believe, why are they always in search for a job if they sever ties with the Black Stars? Some of them by virtue of the relative success with the Black Stars get juicy contracts- only in the Arab world and oil rich nations- that is where their competencies would suffice, I guess, and even there, they get sacked sooner than expected.

The following examples will suffice.
Milovan Rajevac failed to renew his contract in 2010 after qualifying Ghana to the World Cup and a quarter final berth at the competition. His next stop was a Saudi Arabian team Al Ahli. He failed and was sacked. He went to Qatar and was also sacked in 2011 after losses to India and Vietnam. He applied for the Egyptian job but was snubbed. He is now hunting for a job I guess.

Ratomir Dujkovic also qualified Ghana to her first ever World Cup in 2006; got us to the 1/16 stage of the competition and on his return failed to renew his contract. Since then he moved to China to coach, not the senior team, but the U23 side, failed and sacked; went to coach, not the senior team of his native Serbia, but the U21 side and was sacked; went to Seria and was sacked after two months as head coach.

Claude leRoy took Ghana to a third position at the CAN 2008 finals in Ghana. Even though the FA wanted him to stay he left for Oman, achieved relative success; left for Syria in March 2011 and resigned in May the same year. It is not clear which team he is coaching at the moment.

I would rather not talk about the destinations for others like Mariano Barreto, Guissepe Dossena, Milan Zivadinovic because it will be a waste of time and space.

For Plavi, I doubt if he will continue coaching… Don't mind me.

So my big question is why do these white coaches 'succeed'- I am using this word loosely- only in Ghana. The answer is not farfetched.

We have better and natural materials which I am convinced a local coach will be able to shepherd if given the same support and backing by the FA, the players, the media and Ghanaians in general as we give to these 'China made' coaches we have appointed in the past.

I don't intend to wade into some of the preposterous arguments consistently made against local coaches in this write up but may do so if need be.

If we want a competent white coach he will definitely not come for the €30-40,000 peanuts we have.

I say it's time to believe in the Ghanaian for we have nothing to show for the years of belief and faith we put in these low class white coaches.