Renowned Football Administrator and a prominent member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Brong Ahafo Region, Mr. Kofi Manu, popularly known as “blue blue”, has disclosed that plans by some NDC elements to kick out current FA President, Kwesi Nyantekyi as FA Boss were initiated as soon as the NDC assumed power in 2009.
He further claims the current brouhaha over his position is just a continuation of that agenda by a few persons influenced by politics who are uncomfortable with him (Nyantakyi).
Mr. Kofi Manu who served as Honorary Consul General to Cameroon under Jerry John Rawlings’ administration, made the shocking disclosure in an interview with Radio Gold’s Kweku Owusu Aduomi.
Speaking on the Sunday Afternoon Sports show on the recently organized football forum, Mr. Manu disclosed “We are not children, we are not daft. When NDC came, some said that Kwesi Nyantekyi is NPP so we should kick him out; I told them football is not about politics so even though I am NDC, football is not politics so I won’t join them; some of those were part of the initiators of this forum, I know them but don’t want to mention their names. Because of that, some claim I am even not NDC,” he said.
“Blue Blue” opined that the forum organized was a clear agenda by some elements to initiate a change at the FA and indicated that the so called forum of eminent persons had no locus to make some of the proposals it made since only the GFA Congress and Executive Committees were empowered to make decisions on the administration of football and especially the association in Ghana.
He dismissed suggestions that the government could order the FA to act in one way or the other because the FA used public funds.
“Government does not contribute a penny to the running of football in this country. The only thing government does is finance the National teams but that is where people don’t understand because any time a National team travels or there is the need to spend on a National Team, the Sports Ministry appoints an accountant who travels with the team. This accountant is solely responsible for all the monies the government spends on the team; a single cent does not go to the FA. Even when the team caterer is going to the market to get items for the team’s feeding, this accountant goes with the caterer and directly pays for everything the caterer buys and takes a receipt on the transactions. So if there is any issue of public funds, the government has to deal with the Ministry of Sports and its accountants.
“As we speak, the office the GFA uses was put up by FIFA after the clubs in Ghana contributed and bought the land. FIFA put up the Prampram School of Soccer Excellence and is about building a football academy. None of these were done by government. All the salaries of GFA staff and all their operations are funded by the clubs and fees the FA gets from transfers and their quota from gate proceeds etc. On the other hand, the government continues to support other associations like the Ghana Olympic Committee and various other associations unlike the GFA, so they have no locus to decide what the association does,” he said.
Kofi Manu also dismissed calls for Kwesi Nyantekyi to resign and described them as mischievous.
“Resign for what? How can you grade him on just this World Cup appearance when the Black Stars is just a small subset of the work of the FA? How can you ask him to resign just because we couldn’t qualify from the group stage and forget that this was the same man who after 49 years, qualified Ghana to its first World Cup? How can you forget that under this same man Ghana qualified to the 2010 World Cup quarterfinals or that under him the Under 20 won the World Cup? Why are people not talking about that? When was Ghana able to beat Egypt by 6-1? Was it not under this same Kwesi Nyantekyi?” he quizzed.
On calls for the FA Boss to resign from his membership on the Black Stars Management Committee, Kofi Manu disclosed that the idea of the President of the Association being the Black Stars Management Committee Chairman was not novel and further revealed that both Alhaji Jawula and Sam Brew Butler while serving as Chairmen of the GFA, also doubled as Black Stars Management Committee heads.
He thus wondered why those talking about the Black Stars Management Committee now were not doing so when the team was winning and scoring numerous goals to qualify for the World Cup.