Local coach is best for our national game

The search for a head coach to take charge of the technical build-up of the Black Stars, this nation's senior national team, has gone to the wire. The six-man search team of the Ghana Football Association will begin interviewing the three persons still standing tall on the 132 list of coaches from around the world, who applied for the job.

We are told that the last three in the race include only one Ghanaian, former Black Stars coach Kwasi Appiah.

The Chronicle is not worried about the pedigree of the two expatriate coaches still remaining in the race. We are rooting for our own to lead the national team.

In our opinion, only Kwasi Appiah is good enough for the job, and we intend to explain why. Over the years, expatriate coaches have taken over the control of our national team and used it for themselves.

When they have got what they want, these expatriates abandon the team when offers from other countries begin flooding in. We understand that at the time Avram Grant was with the Black Stars in Gabon, supposedly trying to win the African Cup, the Israeli was busily soliciting for a job as the United States manager, and asking for a whopping US$150,000 a month.

Ghana was paying him US$50,000. In plain language, he was not bothered one bit about the outcome of the Black Star's engagement, while the entire 27 million population of Ghana had their hearts in their mouths, urging the national team on to win the African Cup of Nations for the first time since their predecessors returned from the desert heat in Libya in 1982 with the trophy.

Before the Israeli came, Serbian Milovan Rajevac had enriched his curriculum vitae with the Black Star's sterling performance in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, only to ditch Ghana when it mattered most.

These expatriates do not care one hoot about Ghana and its football. They only come because of the money and the opportunity to improve their profile.

We should all be inspired by President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's submission that Ghana should wean itself from foreign aid. In like manner, we should shut our doors to foreign coaches. Our football should be led by Ghanaians who know the terrain and have affection for his country.

The Chronicle would like to submit for the consideration of the Ghana Football Association that the head coach of the Black Stars, must also head the coaching staff of all national teams. We are suggesting that the head coach must, henceforth, be called the national coach.

He or she should lead in formulating a brand of football that must be the standard for all national teams. In other words, football, from juvenile through youth to senior level, must conform to a certain style of playing.

We believe this particular format could be fashioned out, so that no matter who takes over any of our national teams, the style of play would not be markedly different.

Football is key to our national development. When the game is going well, the average Ghanaian is motivated. Football in Ghana, in our considered opinion, is the public relations wing of our national heritage. That is why the Ghana Football Association is on notice to put its house in order.

For instance, instead of the national coach being made to live in a hotel, we would like to see a scenario where the FA would acquire a house for the national coach's use. While we are at it, The Chronicle is recommending improvement in the camping facility at Prampram to make it convenient to house all national football teams in camp.

It is not the very best that footballers are camped in hotels. Maintaining discipline in such situations is a huge challenge. We are not oblivious of the high cost involved in getting the Prampram facility ready to play the role originally envisaged for it.

We believe though that, the cost involved would be worth the effort. In England, for instance, all national teams are camped at the FA's own ground. We could emulate that without breaking sweat.

Football in this country needs to be structured in such a manner that would enable our national teams rival the best in the world. We have players, and surely, the resources to do so.

In the interim, The Chronicle takes this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Kwasi Nyantakyi, President of the Ghana Football Association, for his recent elevation to the Federation of International Football Association's major decision-making body.

But like they say, he should know when to give way to fresh brains on the local scene. The humiliation suffered by Issa Hayatou in Addis Ababa recently, should be the Ghanaian FA boss' reference point.

Forward with Ghana football!