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| Medeama's owners say the team is for sale. |
News
of Medeama and Berekum Chelsea being up for sale didn’t come as a surprise to
me, even though, I found it disappointing that, two good clubs that have been
with us for some time, were about folding up, if not giving up the fight for
lack of funds.
On
a number of the Facebook Pages where I read that news item – shared links – the
comments by readers left me more disappointed. The sermons on how Ghana
football was collapsing and how many more clubs would soon be sold by their
owners dominated what I found to be stained, pessimistic view of Ghana football
particularly by young people, who otherwise, should be positive, exuding optimism
and critically examining the problem to offer solutions and not constant, caustic
criticism that takes us nowhere.
I
agree that a lot of things are wrong in Ghana. For instance, I have wondered
why a lot of leaders in public service continue to fail at managing the smallest
of things put in their care. So I admit that, not many things, including leadership
are in a good state of affairs in our beloved country.
Football
and sports in general are no exceptions. There continues to be confounding rows
over money for national team players before or after international matches.
The various tiers of league football in Ghana are suffering. Clubs can’t pay their
players and these same clubs have nothing specific in place to either measure their
progress or ensure their survival.
I
refuse to talk about the other sporting disciplines. Some of them are in
sorrier state than that of football. Yet, in the midst of the dire situation, hopelessness
or inconsolably describing the problems doesn’t provide any solution. The solution,
in my view, lie in making managers of the game aware of the way out of the pit
they have been trapped in.
From
where I sit, Ghanaian football clubs are not suffering because there are no
straws they can hold onto; they are struggling to survive due to structural deficiencies,
lack of policy guidelines or direction, ill-planning, absence of ambition and sheer
impatience.
In
today’s organised business world, nothing happens by stroke of luck. Institutions
in Ghana that are making it in our so-called unfavourable business setting, attribute
their successes, no matter how small, to careful planning; absolute faith in their
plans and the resolve to execute those plans irrespective of the prevailing economic
challenges.
Most
of our football clubs are not doing any of the above. I won’t mention names but
I ask: How many Ghanaian football clubs in the various upper and lower tier
leagues are properly structured? How many have clearly laid out plans – detailing
their management structure; their business plan, what they seek to achieve, in what
time space and with what personnel?
Elsewhere
(and I’m not going to Europe but staying right in Africa), it’s very easy to point
to these things, often seen as abstract and irrelevant, yet so important to the survival
of football clubs in this modern era. We can for example, identify the
successes of some African clubs on the administrative level, the same way we can finger-point their achievements on the pitch.
Is
it the same situation in Ghana?
I
believe, it’s so easy if not cheap to blame President of the Ghana Football
Association (GFA), Kwesi Nyantakyi and the organisation he heads, for not providing
the required leadership to help our clubs. Assuming that blame is even legitimate,
we may have to ask if the GFA, which Kwesi Nyantakyi heads, is a separate entity
made up of people, different from those at our various football clubs. Whether or
not these people are different; the question that begs an answer is: Season in,
season out, do our clubs do anything to better their lot?
Your
guess is as good as mine.
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