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09.05.2012 Editorial

EDITORIAL: When Plavi Gets Out Of Town!

By Daily Graphic
EDITORIAL: When Plavi Gets Out Of Town!
09.05.2012 LISTEN

Most Ghanaian fans must have welcomed the news of the severance of the contractual relationship between Serbian coach, Goran Stevanovic (Plavi) of Black Stars fame, and the Ghana Football Association.

Much as we welcome it too, we feel disappointed at the feet-dragging by the FA on a decision that could have been reached immediately after the failed Africa Nations Cup mission instead of the near-five weeks that it lasted.

What was the point in delaying the decision when at the end of it all, the initial fears of the FA paying compensation to Plavi three-fold or in the monthly salary sum up to next February when the contract would have officially ended still persisted?

Based on the apparently bogus contract entered into with the Serbian, he is reported to be heading to FIFA for redress, the familiar path that expatriate coaches to Ghana have often resorted to in such circumstances.

The incidence of causing financial loss to the state cannot be discounted in this case, and it is our point that the requisite agencies of state take up this matter to rein in those who authored what now appears a fraudulent contract document.

It is against this backdrop that we think a thought should be spared for the suggestion from other stakeholders in Ghana football that future contracts must involve the Attorney Generals Department, or at least, be perused or endorsed by it, and also involve the Public Interest Commttee (PIC) of the FA.

It is a crying shame that an important committee of the FA as the PIC has been reduced to a paper tiger, or a toothless bull dog, barking without biting, and not given the space in the financial commitments of the FA in the hiring or firing of coaches.

But we cannot fail to praise the steadfastness of those members of the FA Executive Committee, as well as ordinary Ghanaian fans and the sports media, in ensuring that Plavi exited the coaching job of the Stars.

We have also heard it being suggested that the other members of the technical team, except Kwasi Appiah, must follow. That, indeed, will be in order as either all, or most of them appear to have outlived their usefulness.

A chronicle of the good, the bad and ugly scenes in the Stars’ camp before, during and after AFCON 2012 depicts that these men were helpless and hapless. Therefore, of what use will they be for the Stars with virtually the same crop of players going forward?

We also think the FA president has to be commended and not jeered for bending to the wishes of the majority in spite of his strong feelings that Plavi should stay.

He must have listened to wise counsel, especially so when the current membership of the FA sports many of his close friends some of who, it is believed, were the most powerful voices for the sack of the coach. So, it was a matter of swimming together or perishing together.

Indeed, we give thumbs up for the FA capo for condescending even though we condemn the long period of indecision on his part. For, as we had noted some weeks earlier, ‘procrastination is the thief of time’.

Plavi would still have gone to the court of FIFA if he were fired instantly after Gabon-Equatorial Guinea. Indeed, we rather compounded the case, or weakened our argument by allowing Plavi to handle the team at the international friendly against Chile in the United States last month.

The Serbian goes to FIFA also armed with the excuse that he fears for his life in Ghana based on what the vice-president of the FA was reported to have said to the effect that the association would no longer be responsible for his security once they had parted ways.

This must have been an innocuous statement, since it goes without saying. But the interpretation that it has taken could have been avoided had the FA vice-president been a little more circumspect.

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