Renowned sports analyst and coach, Nana Kweku Agyemang, believes the blame for the Black Stars poor showing at the World Cup in Brazil should largely be put on the Ghana Football Association.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday morning, Nana Agyemang said he believes the current administration of the GFA doesn’t “know how to manage football in this country.”
He believes the football governing body in the country consists of people from “different professional backgrounds” who have come into football because of its “lucrative appeal.”
Nana Agyemang believes that despite the success enjoyed by the team at previous World Cup tournaments, not enough effort has been made to improve grass-root football in the country.
“We’ve not built one stadium, not one training pitch from the finances accrued from our participation in the previous World Cup tournaments.
“No new infrastructure has been established, there’s been no refurbishment of the old infrastructure.”
He also criticized the GFA’s attitude towards local coaches and the domestic leagues, stating that it is focused only on the senior national team and has not done much to improve the quality of the game in the country.
He opined that the local league needs about $50 million pumped into it over the next five years in order for it to grow.
On the performance of the Black Stars in Brazil, Nana Agyemang said that the Black Stars did not prepare adequately for the World Cup.
The Black Stars played just two friendly matches against the Netherlands and South Korea before going to Brazil.
He faulted the coach for starting Christian Atsu, Daniel Opare and Jordan Ayew, who had scored a hat-trick against the Koreans in what he called a “non-competitive match”, in Ghana’s opening game at the World Cup against the USA, saying that they were players who were not experienced enough for the berth.
Kwesi Appiah handed all three players World Cup debuts in the 2-1 loss to the USA, leaving Shalke midfielder, Kevin Prince Boateng, on the bench.
He also expressed his displeasure at the coach’s insistence on playing Kwadwo Asamoah at left back stating that Leicester left-back, Jeff Schlupp, should not have been dropped from the squad.
Ghana’s exit from the World Cup was marked by controversy as midfielder Sulley Muntari was expelled from the team for physically assaulting a member of the team’s management committee.
Nana Agyemang stated that the issues which arose before the game against Portugal on Thursday were deep-seated and had only come to the fore.
He believes that the players have lost respect for the management of the team and just expressed what they believed was wrong with the current system.
According to him, the entire Black Stars team needs be dissolved, along with the management of the team, with “good football people” put in their place, in order for the team to start over and correct the errors that have been made.
He also calls for an increased effort by the authorities to develop the local league, stating that this is the only way forward for the development of the game in the country .