Saif Lays It Bare:The Truth That Hurts But The FA Must Accept For The Good Of Ghana Football

The age long assertion by the majority of the public and a section of the media has been re-echoed by Saif Rubie, the agent of the blackstars coach, Avram Grant.

Over the years many were they who said the league in Ghana is substandard and have beenm met with a barrage of insults and attacks from the GFA and its communicators. This has been the case since Kwasi Nyantekyi's second tenure of office began in the year 2011.

Last week, the agent of the blackstars coach, Saif Rubie was reported to have granted an interview to the BBC, where he was believedd to have cast a slur on the Ghanaian premier league by saying the league is too substandard to have its players in the national team, the blackstars, in trying to defend his client from the tantrums that were been thrown at him by a section of the media and the FA for not coming back to Ghana early, even when his holidays had ended.

He was quoted as saying, "He sleeps amd drinks Ghamaian football but at the moment the quality of the league in Ghana is not up ther due to a number of reasons. Any player that does well in Ghana goes to play football in second and third division teams in Europe and Asia in places like Thailand and Vietnam and obviously for Avram, these are mot players he will look to pick for the national team so the pool of players in the Ghanaian league is not the standard that it should be".

The GFA also in their usual posture came out with a press release refuting Saif's claims by saying his interview was filled with factual inaccuracies and that he should stay off Ghana's football matters which he knows little about.

Mr. Saif might have gotten it wrong when he said the blackstars coach had organized coaching seminars for Ghanaian coaches. Obviously, there was factual inaccuracy there but was certainly not wrong in the coment he made with regards to the poor nature of the Ghanaian league.

The truth is that the league is extremely substandard to say the least. It is far below the stamdards that will produce quality enough players to feed the blackstars. The GFA have failed to raise the standard of the league and will not allow people to talk about it either. As to why? I dont know. Or is it the case that the current administration lacks the requisite competence to raise the standard of the league? People like Kwabena Yeboah, Dan Kwaku Yeboah, Mr. Pobi of Neoplan stars and Mr. Kofi Manu who now defends the activities of the FA to the core have all in the past lamented about the poor nature of the league.

The unfortunate thing is that whever people have had the cause to complain about the poor state of the league, such people were branded detructors of the FA without taking a critical look at their criticisms or complains. It is an undeniable fact that there may be a section of the media who will criticise the FA or the poor nature of the league without good fate but rather, do that only to make the FA and the president unpopular for their prefered candidates to brought on board in the subsequent FA elections.

And there is absolutely no doubt about that but Mr. President, that should not in any way creat the avenue for you to think all he people who criticise you with regards to the poor nature of the league do that with some form of malice or with some form of sinister agenda behind. Some of the calls are gemuine and ought to be heeded to.

In the statement release by the FA to refute Saif's assertion, the FA made mention of the fact that the greatest asset any federation has for the development of football in its country is its league. And I perfectly agree with the FA but inspite of all these the FA remains heedless of the league.

Most Ghanaian players struggle to make it in the mainstream European football. And it is all as a result of the substandard nature of our league. The fact that our clubs are knocked out in the early stages of the CAF champions league and the CAF confideration cup, couple with the poor performance of our national teams which are dominated by the home based players is an attestation to the substandard nature of the league.

Take the under 20 team that participated in the just ended summer world youth championship and you realise that the few that performed quite well were all foreign based players. The chan team was beaten by a team like Madagascar in this year's COSAFA cup when we played as a guest team to the tournament.

The FA in its statement also argued that Baba Rahman was a few years ago playing in the league but has just been signed by Chelsea football club and that if the league is as Saif is making it seem, Rahman would not have been in Chelsea by now. And the question I ask the FA is this: How many of our players from the league have been able to break into the mainstream European clubs since Rahman left the shores of Ghana? Rahman's case is only a case of exceptionality on the part of him, where he is so much endowed with the natural talent and so will always do well no matter where he finds himself or conditions around him. And so the FA using Rahman as a case for their argument fals flat in the face.

What I want the FA president, Mr. Kwasi Nyantekyi and his deputy secretary Mr. Sani Dara who doubles as the mouth piece of the FA to understand is that Mr. Saif's assertion about the league is only an attestation to what well meaning Ghanaian football fans have been saying over the years and they have refused accept.

Mr. Saif's statement anout the league is the truth, a bitter pill that is difficult to swallow but must be swallowed. Running to brush aside what people say all the time is not in the interest of our footbal. The FA should heed to all contributions to help grow our league.

They say we speak to the wise in proverbs but I have decided to speak in plain language. Long live Ghana football.