Vice Chairman for the Youth, Sports and Culture Committee in parliament, Hon. Eugene Boakye Antwi believes Ghana football needs some urgent change in leadership to rescue the diminishing fortunes of the sport.
His comments comes on the back of Ghana’s group stage exit at the ongoing U23 AFCON where the black Meteors failed to qualify from their group after placing 3rd in the group ,the failure to make it out of the group implies that, Ghana’s 20 year wait to participate in the Olympic Games will continue.
Also, the black stars disappointing exit from the 2021 AFCON where they were bottom of the group after picking up only a point in 3 games Qatar 2022 world cup was no different as once again the Stars failed to live up to expectation and were eliminated early on in the tournament at the group stage.
Kurt Okraku who has been in the helm of affairs for Ghana football federation(GFA) since 2019 has things fallen out of order and has not enjoyed a good start to his tenure due to abysmal performance of the various national teams and clubs in tournaments under his watch.
When quizzed on the state of Ghana foootball currently, he said:” if these rumors are true ,then I’m really really afraid for the future of our football. If you invite them I mean put this allegation before them, they will ask for proof “
Hon. Eugene Boakye said these pointing to the fact that there is manipulation in the FA over player selections and how the coaches should operate, he expressed his fear for Ghana football with the prevailing circumstances.
Not only have the black Stars failed but the Black Satellite (U-20) who were champions 13 years ago in Egypt have missed out on qualification in the last 3 tournaments and thus not participating in the just ended U-20 World Cup In Argentina.
The women department proves to be no different as the Black Queens also failed to qualify for the Women’s World Cup which kicks off on the 20th of July, 2023 in Australia and New Zeland.
The hope of the Black Queens hinges on the double legged Olympic qualification games against Guinea on the 14th and 18th of July.
Mean while, Maidens are faced with a ban which prevents them from competing in the U-17 World Cup .
He finished off by calling out commentators and sports pundits to be bold.
“you have all these sports commentators around, they follow us everywhere, they have a fair idea of what goes on but nobody is ready to bite the bullet and tell it as it is for fear of victimization or losing their jobs”
Indeed this is the deplorable state Ghana football faces ,constantly under achieving and being content with mediocrity, but we wait to see how things pans out in the near future.
Story by: Andrews Sefah Bamfo
