The Chairman of the erstwhile Local Orangising Committee of Ghana 2008, Dr. Kofi Amoah says the Ghana Football Association must be put to task for the poor state of the local league.
Ghana football has suffered a succession of failures lately with most of the national teams failing to perform on the international stage including the local Black Stars, the Black Meteors, Black Queens and Black Satellites.
However, the senior national team, the Black Star continue to receive rave reviews for their performances, that last of which saw them come back from a goal down to draw 1:1 with England in a friendly game at Wembley in March.
The FA appear to be clueless to the exact cause of the recent poor run but many keen observers of the game have pointed accusing fingers at the FA for its failure to develop the local league.
“I want to take this opportunity to encourage my friends at the FA, Kwesi Nyantakyi-everybody knows is my darling, I love him, I support him- but I think the FA must be put to task,” Dr. Amoah said in an exclusive interview on E TV’s Sports Lounge.
“We are failing when it comes to the domestic league and it must be said in plain black and white.
Dr. Amoah who was the chairman of the LOC which successfully hosted the African Nations Cup in 2008 decried the current state of the domestic league.
“Our local league is in shambles” he said adding that “nobody goes to the stadium to watch us.”
“Our Players are focused on getting contracts elsewhere and fly out of the country.
“Our coaches are underpaid and therefore yes, football and other sports are great assets of the nation that we must try to cultivate.
“But in cultivating it, we must understand the kind of investment that we have to make locally and begin to do things right.”
The accomplished Ghanaian entrepreneur also said that the FA cannot continue to take sole credit for the performance of the Black Star since most of the players are trained abroad.
“We must regroup and rethink through things properly otherwise we will continue to depend on them (foreign based players).
“Even though they are Ghanaians they are somebody’s product. Once they fly out of here, it is somebody else who is nurturing them.”
“Yes we are proud of them because they come from the soil of Ghana but we can’t take the pride of their exhibition from those who trained them,” Dr. Amoah stressed.
Local coaches have been partly blamed for the dwindling fortunes of the game in some quarters but many keen observers have also laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of the FA.
But Dr. Amoah, who is also known as Citizen Kofi, says there is an ever present need to inject fresh investment into the local clubs.
“Every football club in the country must be required to have a certain minimum capitalisation.
“Banks are required to pay $70million or GH 70 million before operating in this country.
“You can’t squeeze blood out of stone. It needs resources to do things right.”
The Kwesi Nyantakyi administration has come under heavy public criticism in the wake of the country’s abysmal performances coupled with the low standard of the league.
Dr. Amoah though still believes the FA leadership has the capability to turn things around.
“I think we have some experienced people at the FA but they must begin to do their work, he said.
“Yes Fifa regulation says there should be no interference but football is a passion of the nation and it is a part of the fabric of our society and we cannot sit aside and be quite if you are not doing the job right.
“They must get up and do it,” Dr. Amoah charged.
“Kwesi Nyantakyi, you have the capability, we have seen you with your passion, you have done a lot of great work.”
“Now let’s think inward, lets look back home. I have said we should put sports back in the schools,” he said.
Dr. Amoah is the second high profile personality to have directly critised the FA for its handling of the local league in recent times following that of soccer legend Abedi Ayew Pele.
Dr. Kofi Amoah was speaking to E TV’S Yaw Ampofo-Ankrah.
