Ghana’s CHAN failure reflects negatively on our league
The 1-2 defeat suffered by Ghana’s home-based national team at the hands of their Burkina Faso counterparts in Kumasi last Sunday was not just a big blow but also another low for Ghana football.
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It was not just one of those upsets teams occasionally suffer; it was another stark reflection of Ghana’s slide in the continent as the Black Stars B Team failed to make it to the African Nations Championship for the second time running.
And, coming six months after Burkina Faso had denied the star-studded Black Stars a bronze medal at the Africa Cup of Nations tourney in Gabon, last Sunday’s loss at the Baba Yara Stadium was a very bitter pill to swallow, especially as the home-based players flattered only to deceive when it mattered most.
After their 2-2 draw in Ouagadougou, it seemed complacency might have taken the best of the Ghanaian technical handlers and players who, perhaps, thought home advantage in the return leg was just enough to see them through to the tournament in Kenya.
The Burkinabe were more inspired and did just enough to ensure qualification to the 2018 CHAN.
Ghana’s failure to qualify for the CHAN is just inexcusable, to say the least. In fact, it paints a bad picture – perhaps a true reflection —of the standard of our domestic league whose best materials have twice in succession failed to make it to the biggest gathering reserved for players plying their trade in Africa.
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Certainly, all those responsible for ensuring that the team qualified cannot escape blame, particularly the management committee led by Nii Komiete Doku, the Kwasi Appiah-led technical team and the playing body. Even though Appiah has overall responsibility for the team’s technical direction, one cannot fail to recognise the monumental failure by Assistant Coach Maxwell Konadu, who has been in charge of the local Black Stars for more than three years.
His apology for the team’s failure is not enough, especially after he and Appiah had been given the free hand to select the best players available, while the Premier League was put on hold to enable the team to prepare adequately.
However, beyond the shortcoming of the technical handlers and the management committee, the failure to qualify for Kenya 2018 is another reminder that our Premier League is unable to match up to the standards of our competitors in the continent. And one must not look far for proof — the performance of Ghanaian clubs in CAF’s inter-club competitions is enough evidence that we cannot compete at the very top.
In fact, since Accra Hearts of Oak won the inaugural CAF Confederation Cup, no other Ghanaian side has come very close to winning a continental competition and it should be a concern for the Ghana Football Association, the Premier League Board, GHALCA and other key stakeholders to find ways to improve the quality of our league to make our clubs and national teams more competitive.
