Talents alone don’t make a good league

The First Capital Plus Premier League

The self-adulation that characterizes the talk by Ghana Football Association (GFA) officials anytime they speak on the Ghana Premier League (GPL) is one that always fascinates me.

That the GPL is ranked third best in Africa and that it is better than South Africa’s Premier League Soccer (PSL) is a submission that has strongly been forced on us.

On Monday, May 19, 2014 GFA President Kwesi Nyantakyi, speaking in an insightful interview on Joy FM’s Brazil 2014 show said without any equivocation that, in terms of talent and by extension, player quality, the GPL’s is streets ahead of most African leagues including South Africa’s PSL. The FA President made valid points regarding his take on how some people gloss over Ghana’s poor economy to compare our club football to what pertains in England for example.

That comparison (references from England to compare with events in Ghana) has no basis because the English Premier League for example runs in an economy which is significantly stable and more developed than the economy of Ghana, said the FA President.

Factors contributing to the underdevelopment of our football clubs and the GPL can’t be disengaged from the bad state of Ghana’s economy. That, coming from the FA President was important. In developed economies and countries, football clubs aren’t only well-structured, they are also truly professional. They attract best of players and pay them very well.

League bodies in those countries formulate policies which accelerate the development of their leagues. They have adequate resources to support their development. In that case, we cannot overlook economic issues when discussing the development of the GPL. That is why the FA President, Kwesi Nyantakyi was right to say that, until our economy grows to the extent that, clubs can pay their players well, it will always be wrong to compare things here to Europe.

Having made this point, the FA President, thus surprised me when he said that because our league has many good talents, it is in fact, better than the PSL. How is that possible, Mr. President? Do talents alone make a league better? By virtue of his status at CAF, Kwesi Nyantakyi said he was well-informed on the state most African leagues.

The FA President is right but we are all witnesses to what goes on or what exists in other African countries in terms of league football. We can tell that, the GPL is behind in many respects. We ought to focus on improving the standards in organization and stop the self-adulation.

Whatever group that ranked the GPL third best in Africa recently had their own basis but we who closely follow events in the league know better. Let’s stop deceiving ourselves. Yes, we may have the player quality but what else does the GPL has to beat others on the continent?  

Infrastructure-wise, many GPL clubs still play on some terrible pitches. What has been the performance of our clubs in Africa in the last decade or more? What about the marketing and sponsorship issues of the GPL? How much money do our clubs earn from the marketing of the GPL? Does it compare favourably with what clubs in Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, etc. earn?

Despite being close to the end of the current season, the GFA/PLB have not rewarded last season’s league winner. Is that what happens in a professional Premier League? Isn’t it embarrassing that the FA still haven’t found something to give to the league champion? Where does this happen? I hate to make comparisons but will this be seen in the Tunisian, Moroccan, the Egyptian or South African Premier League which we think we are better than?
 
The GPL has talents but talents are nothing if the right conditions are not there to harness them. Talents add up to nothing if proper structures and resources are not in place to develop them. Talents amount to nothing if after exhibiting them in a whole season, no recognition is given to you like we have seen in the case of Kotoko since last season. Talents alone don’t make a league better, Mr GFA President.

Clubs in Ghana are poorly structured. They are badly managed. They have little or no resources to speed their development. They indeed have no serious plan for growth. I will not actually blame the FA for the poor administrative standards at our clubs but all that go to affect standards in the GPL and why should we be celebrating the poor standards, Mr. President?