Crisis summit urgent for Ghana football

The United Kingdom (UK) government yesterday took a significant step to regulate football by the introduction of a new Bill in its Parliament which is intended to, among many other things, involve the fans more in the administration of the game.

The Football Governance Bill is expected to "explicitly require clubs to provide effective engagement" with fans on issues, including changes to ticket prices and any proposals to relocate home grounds.

The bill comes in the wake of the invasion of England especially by foreign investors whose stranglehold on club ownership has diminished the presence of the UK’s human resource in management, playing squads and even backroom personnel.

As the UK Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, told the BBC: "For too long, financial instability has meant loyal fans and whole communities have risked losing their cherished clubs as a result of mismanagement and reckless spending”.

This step of the UK government provides an important lesson about the effort to improve, amid abundance, in order not to be overtaken by events. In Ghana, officials cannot help but  emulate the effort to save the downward spiral of local football.

In Benghazi, Libya, October 15, 2024, Sudan put aside the troubles of an unending internal civil strife, a war that has cost the nation many lives and limbs, to overcome the Black Stars 2-0 in the reverse fixture of a Nations Cup qualifier.

More than the precarious qualification chances, the Black Stars symbolised a team with confidence crisis, fallen quality and poorly run.

Amid the questions regarding the competence or appropriateness of the technical team, there are also doubts about the quality of the current team, commitment of the players, a seeming disunited squad, the limited management decisions and the entire structure of Ghana football.

The musical chair scenario of the coaching job has failed to stem the downward tide, while the change in the leadership of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has hardly made a difference.

The recent performances of the Black Stars, without any shred of doubt, only reflect the state of Ghana’s football. Indeed, Ghana's once formidable presence in age-defined football competitions appears long gone, with the nation left only with memories of the beautiful scenes of the Black Starlets (U-17) and Black Satellites (U-20) teams at FIFA tournaments.

With the conveyor belt of the junior sides now disrupted by alleged issues of favouritism, among others, Ghana presently relies heavily on “foreign” talent groomed in different cultures and nurtured under “alien” football climatic conditions.

The effect is the lack of affection for the national flag and the lack of connection with the passion of the Ghanaian public.

As though the apparent lack of player commitment is not enough, the handlers compound matters with fitful decisions about the captaincy of the team, fuelling rumours about conflicts among the squad.

The Ghana Premier League has become a comical stage where a betting gang ruined a serious business recently, while a team paraded unregistered players in a competitive league match.

The average fan views the local game as highly compromised, and the scale of the malaise is pronounced during the relegation battles.

Hard evidence was fetched in the infamous AshantiGold versus Inter Allies match in 2022 when details emerged of the behind-the-scene arrangement that was to fetch a club official untold fortune in a betting scandal.

It cannot be a surprise then that the local league can hardly boast of a truly outstanding talent equal to the relatively glorious standards of their Sudanese counterparts that humiliated the Black Stars on October 15, 2024.

Without the prompting of external influences, the managers of Ghana football should be convening a crisis summit of relevant stakeholders, such as coaches, past players, club administrators, match officials, security officers and others to discuss the hard truths about the league, player selection into the national teams, youth development, and, indeed, the entire structure of Ghana football.

This summit must look critically at the competence of the technical directorate of the GFA, the experience of personnel on the various management bodies, the backroom staff of the technical headship of the various teams and any other issues that can improve the local football.

This is urgent!