The COSAFA Cup fiasco...

Coach Maxwell Konadu

Two defeats. Four goals conceded. One goal scored. That was the record of the home-based Black Stars at the just ended Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Cup hosted by South Africa. Ghana, not being part of that football community was an invited guest to participate in the 13-day tournament, which was eventually won by Namibia, who beat Mozambique 2-0 in the final.

Prior to the tournament, it was natural and perhaps easy to think that, the Ghana team, coached by Maxwell Konadu would win the competition. Not until this year, the COSAFA Cup wasn’t a competition many Ghanaian football fans followed closely. But this time, with Ghana’s participation, some of us paid attention to it. We were sorely disappointed.

Madagascar gave us what was a rude shock; beating the home based Black Stars 2-1. Madagascar?

That was the question on the lips of many football fans and commentators after that game.

Yes, Madagascar – the “huge island nation off the southeast coast of Africa”. The shock and disdainful remarks that followed Ghana’s defeat for me, painted an ugly picture of the utter disrespect we seem to have for the famous Island and all they represent in African football.

We easily forgot the overly used football maxim that, “there are no minnows” in the game. Additionally, we overlooked the fact that, a team’s pedigree in football doesn’t mean anything as long as that team doesn’t score or win. We should always remember that what matters most in the beautiful game isn’t the reputation a team has but rather, that team’s ability to live by its reputation. As Ghanaian fans and football commentators we lost sight of these facts.

The tourney has come and gone. I don’t believe Ghana should have boycotted it as some have suggested. I agree that, Ghana’s participation influenced the Ghana Football Association’s decision to change the start date for the First Capital Premier League’s second round. How flexible and weak our league calendar appears sometimes amazes me.

Back to the COSAFA fiasco, I disagree with the view that, the defeats inflicted on Ghana by Madagascar and Zambia (3-0) means that Ghana has a very poor league. That notion is wrong. Although I strongly believe that, the best of players and teams in our league have massive organizational and performance work to undertake before they can excel beyond Ghana, I don’t accept that our league and its products are in such awful shape.

We seem to have this nauseating habit of hastily vilifying our Premier League on very flimsy premise, as if to say that, ours is just so bad! It’s admissible that, we have to sit up and work hard to improve on the state of affairs regarding our Premier League but we should stop thinking of our Premier League in demeaning lights.

A little over a year back, Coach Maxwell Konadu and virtually the same team that failed at the 2015 COSAFA Cup were runners-up at the 2014 CHAN tournament, which in terms of prestige, is much bigger than the COSAFA competition.

 

I’m neither glorifying the underachievement of Coach Maxwell Konadu and his team at the COSAFA Cup nor am I arguing that, their inability to beat Libya at the CHAN final was good.

I’m only asking: What’s changed so much within one year for us to think or assume that, our Premier League is in terrible form compared to what exists in Madagascar and Zambia? 

I haven’t seen any negative thing concerning our Premier League in the last one year. If there’s been any change, it’s been toward the positive end. The little efforts clubs, the Premier League Board (PLB) and Ghana Football Association are making to change things ought to be appreciated and not denigrated.

I haven’t said we shouldn’t criticize the PLB/GFA, clubs or indeed club administrators. I’m only saying that, the never-ending, acidic remarks on our Premier League only corrodes if not poisons the minds of fans and people bent on helping make a lasting, positive change of the game.