C.K Gyamfi reacts to Doya’s remarks

Following the remarks by the Black Stars coach Ratomir Dujkovic last week, Ghana's moat celebrated football coach and administrator, C.K Gyamfi, has not only condemned Doya's outrageous remarks against Black African players but also deliberated on issues concerning player discipline, as pertained all over the world.

Every team has one or few individuals who will not have the quality of discipline instilled in them. They do or say things that bring the image or name of the team into disrepute at a point in time and this does not enhance the work of the coach. An indiscipline team exists only when such individual actions affect the collective acts or speech of the team considerably and thus discipline is non-existent as it applies to the team as a whole.

I dare say this has never being the case and is not currently the case with the Black Stars. Disciplinary measures have always been part of our policies with regard to our National Teams from time immemorial. Not too long ago during the CAN 2002 tournament in Mail, Samuel Kuffour was disciplined by the FA whiles I have had to discipline Baba Yara, of blessed memory, in my capacity as coach of the Black Stars when he was invited a night club to collect an award during camping without permission. Discipline is a paramount integral principle of team coordination, performance enhancement among others that ensures one's training programmes, tactics and game plan are executed to the letter.

Secondly, the coach must be very appreciative of the nature of his job and role he plays. Government is not the appointing body for that position; they only help implement decisions of the FA more often than not. Therefore, I think it is wrong to accuse the Government of planning to sack him, especially taking into consideration FIFA rules on the running of FAs. If a local coach preferred to him a foreigner for the position, he would not have been offered the job in the first place and made to stay on all this while let alone get Ghanaian coaches to help him in his job.

Undoubtedly, the Public, an important stakeholder, is free to voice its views on issues such as this. They are not the appointing body but contribute in divers ways so their opinions had perceptions that are rightly considered in many respects. Nobody is taking away the qualification feat from him since a place in the World Cup has always been our dream.

Ghana since 1964 qualified for the Olympic Games as the 1st African team south of the Sahara and placed 7th. While conquering Africa many times, our aim of showcasing our prowess on the field of play to the rest of the world has had to wait till now. Ghanaians are not ungrateful but criticisms will always come since you cannot do away with it. This is what especially the Ghanaian press does to keep you on your toes. I have personally been called names, branded horrific tags and even had my picture turned upside down showing the other side of the job. However, you take all this in one's strides with no ill feeling and move on with the job to be done.

I disagreed with the idea of sacking the coach after CAN 2006 in Egypt, if that was a decision to be taken, for various reasons. Further on, I disagree that the absence of five regular players must so much affect our team performance so badly. If adequate team building preparations had taken place considering especially the local talent available this could have been averted. A coaches stay at a particular position no matter the legal and other arrangements is based on many factors important among them being performance.

This weighs heavily on the extension of his tenure. Everyone hailed him when he qualified the team because the right things were done and this brought the love out of Ghanaians for him. Ghanaians are not unrealistic, we aim high and if our aspirations meet the performance through sound preparations, availability of resources, etc so be it.

The current coach has been one of the luckiest in that job in many respects. He is enjoying considerable support from all relevant sections while logistics has been provided regularly to enable him perform as majority of his programs pertaining to trial matches, monitoring players, motivation etc have been honoured. I will crave his indulgence to impart some technical know – how through advising the FA on many fronts technically especially on ways to strengthen our waning Technical structures regionally.