Coach Goran Must Go! (2) – GFA, Listen To The Voice Of Soccer Fans. – A Ghanaian Must Be Head Coach Of Black Stars.
Goran Stevanovic
Truly, lots and lots of soccer fans are still insisting that Ghana’s Black Stars coach, Goran Stevanovic, must go back to Serbia where he hails from, despite his argument that he would like to stay to continue his “unfinished business”. But what unfinished business? The business of misleading the Black Stars to waste money for nothing– for no trophy? If such his misleading, misdirected, and misconstructed coaching methods that bring no palpable reward to the country is a good ‘business’ which must be finished, then he must be told that Ghanaians are not nincompoops to swallow this nonsensical logic of “unfinished business”.
He must not take Ghanaians for a ride, thinking that we don’t have any local coaches to train the Black Stars for the ultimate Africa Nations Cup diadem or World Cup trophy! We certainly have very good coaches, some of them being far better than he! And these can deliver the goods. After all, for the three or four times that Ghana’s Black Stars have brought home the African Nations Cup gold trophy, beginning from Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s time, it was all due to the efforts of Ghanaian coaches. Not a single white coach has achieved this ultimate objective. The records speak for themselves. Anytime we employ a white coach, he comes on over, receives high, very high salaries and fat contract allowances, and fumbles on the way without achieving the ultimate prize. It’s only Ghanaian coaches who know the psyche of Ghanaian Black Stars, and can orchestrate their African traits to win the prize. The simple conclusion here is that Ghanaian coaches must be made to handle the Black Stars – always, if we want trophies!
This is a fact that cannot be challenged. In this regard, the question that is often asked is, why then should the Ghana Football Association (GFA) shut their eyes over this trophy-winning grace of our Ghanaian coaches, and by-pass them to technically dragoon white coaches to Ghana to lead the Black Stars for nothing? We slavishly agree to pay these white coaches heavy amounts of money as salaries and allowances, which they take to their home countries with glee, after failing to lead the Stars to bring diadems. GFA is fully aware of these facts, yet they still go the whole hog of employing white coaches to manage our soccer affairs for nothing, except to ‘chop’ our money and go back.
OUR LOCAL COACHES SLIGHTED
What is more distressing is that black or, to be precise, Ghanaian coaches employed to lead the Black Stars are not given even half of the salaries and allowances given to those white expatriate coaches. Nobody knows why Ghanaian coaches are so maltreated! GFA, why is this so? Why should Ghanaian coaches be treated as nonentities? Why? It is in consonance with this disparaging culture that GFA is unable to make any binding rules that can enforce the immediate payment of salaries and allowances of Ghanaian coaches of various local clubs. It was in the news recently that two local coaches had not been paid their salaries for two months! And GFA’s omerta (code of silence) has been pronouncedly evident in such cases, to the extent of not showing concern in the affairs of the non-paying local clubs! Yet GFA is the governing body of Ghana’s soccer empire. The reason for GFA’s silence is that GFA appears to slight Ghanaian coaches. If this is not true, why can’t a Ghanaian head coach be appointed to man the affairs of the Black stars? It is high time GFA began to appreciate the wisdom in Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s saying that, “the African is capable of managing his own affairs”. Our local coaches have already proven that they are capable of managing the affairs of the Black Stars to the extent of four times bringing down to Ghana the African Cup. And they still are capable of grabbing the World Cup for Ghana. If Ghanaian coaches have already proven their capabilities, why is it that they are not chosen to be head coaches to manage the Black Stars’ affairs so as to bring triumphs and ultimate prizes to make Ghanaians proud? During Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s time, the Director of Sports, Ohene Djan and the GFA wisely collaborated to choose Ghanaian coaches to lead the Black Stars to bring diadems to Ghana, all under the concept of “African Personality”. Since Nkrumah exited from the political scene, the ‘African Personality’ idea which was becoming pervasive all over Africa, was supplanted by the old colonial adage of ‘white colonial masters first’, and in subsequent years, our soccer realm has often been managed by coaches from white colonial nations, yielding no good results to Ghana.
WHITE MENTALITY
The general consensus is that Kwasi Nyantekyi’s GFA believes in the primordial, pre-independence concept of “white mentality”, during which white men dominated in almost every department of our Ministries, and in many departments of our economic life. And in their brutish masterly pride, the white men did not care for the welfare of African workers, nor were they ever ready to listen to the black man’s suggestions. The white did not regard Africans as people who had brains to do anything good. I saw with naked eyes, at least from the late 1940s up to 1957 when Ghana received independence— how white masters lorded it over us, and treated our suggestions with contempt. And this pride is persistently vibrant in some white people who take up key positions in Ghana today. Coach Goran Stevanovic has been described as a person who would not brook good suggestions in regard to the management of the Black Stars during the recent African Nation Cup competition, hence he capriciously changed his players on the field at any odd time, replacing them with whom he liked; and he whimsically and idiosyncratically changed the positions of the players on the field, making mid-fielders play in the forward-line and those on the left play on the right, damning the suggestions of his technical bench who were black Africans! There are two allegations which are pertinent to the issue of Nyantekyi’s GFA being preoccupied with “white mentality” ideas of always desiring to employ white coaches at the expense of black Ghanaian coaches who rather bring in the ultimate prizes. One of the allegations is political, the other economic.
The first is that the GFA, led by Nyantekyi, is ironically infested with pro-Danquah/Busia NPP elements, who denounce Dr Nkrumah’s African Personality concept and hail the “white-mentality” idea, and therefore would always like to employ a white coach, whether Ghanaians would weep or not. At least, four individuals have approached me with this conclusion.
And they mentioned Nyantekyi as NPP stalwart, hence his adamancy in keeping white coaches, even though our objective of obtaining the African Nations Cup eludes us. He is said to be strongly supported by some NPP elements there. If this allegation is true, then I am saddened by it; and thus I am tempted to ask the question: is the GFA a place where underhand politics should be played to the detriment of Ghana’s prestige, pride and praise-worthiness? I admire Nyantekyi’s management capabilities which have earned him a position in the CAF and utmost reverence for his Wa All Stars football club. However, I don’t want to believe this political allegation. It might be far-fetched; but if there is some truth in it, then those political elements should try to change their management style of prolonging coach Goran’s stay. Such white-mentality fixation is obnoxious and quixotic in the present era. They must employ Ghanaian coaches instead, for a proverb in Fante: “wo se ko-o a dza etafer ho ara nye no” (if you have dirty, putrified ‘red’ teeth, they are the only ones you can suck) provides downright credence to this African Personality argument.
The second allegation is that there is a small clique in GFA who are doing player-exposure and sales business with this white coach Goran, and therefore I should watch if he will be sacked now. The allegation contends that coach Goran will be allowed to stay put, all for business’ sake. I don’t want to believe this. But some of us are watching if this can be true.
In conclusion, coach Goran’s denial of what he said before the recent African Nations tournaments to the effect that he would resign if Ghana did not win the gold trophy, is laughable. If he did not say this, why should various press houses report this? He said it, and he must resign. He only wants the GFA to dismiss him so that he gets some compensation. Ghanaians are not fools. He must go!
(To be continued next week).
By Apostle Kwamena Ahinful.
