Football In Ghana Is Dying – Sammy Kuffour

Former Black Stars defender, Samuel Osei Kuffour has reiterated that football in the country is gradually dying.

The country has found it difficult to replace some of his great players after they announced their retirement from football.

The former Bayern Munich defender speaking to the media on Monday at the Movenpick hotel at the unveiling of the AITCO CAF Awards, he said, "I didn’t have the opportunity to win the Africa Cup of Nations and it pains me but I still love the game and anytime I sit on television and my country fail to perform, it pains me because I want them to win. I don’t have anything to show my children that I won the Africa Cup of Nations so as far as the country is playing I always wish them all the best but we are not doing what is best for the country.

"What the CAF president is doing must be a lesson to all African football leaders and hope our FA president will now know that the legends are important and it about time we get them involved in the development of the game. Gianni Infantino is trying to do all his best to bring all the football legends in the game and now Ahmad Ahmad is also trying to do the same thing here and so I believe Nyantakyi now knows what he has to do. PFAG is there so I believe he must know what to do moving forward.

He continued, "If we are not developing the youth it means we will not have any Black Stars in the future. I don’t necessarily believe that the U-20 team should win the World Cup. We made a lot of mistakes in the past but I think we should know better now. We should develop the U-17 for them to go there and participate in the World Cup and allow them to go through the ranks but what we are doing now is not done anywhere.

“We need a plan on how to develop sports in the country. Everybody loves football and because of football see how many people that have gathered here and if the country is not doing well we all cry in our heart and football in this country so far as I am concern is dying slowly and if care is not taken it will be difficult for us to qualify even for the AFCON." he added.