Beyond Brazil 2014: The untold truth

The FIFA 2014 World Cup is now history. Germany and the other participating countries that excelled have returned home with pride and a sense of achievement. In contrast, countries that feel they did not perform to their potential have returned with fallen faces and are deservedly licking their wounds.

In Ghana, as has always been our character, the blame game will continue for a while, coupled with the usual hue and cry while the real issues are swept under the carpet. There will be setting up of committees and then silence until the cycle repeats itself in the not-too-distant future. After all, there are more pressing issues to attend to.

Having performed quite well in our first two attempts at the World Cup, perhaps the average Ghanaian was right in expecting that the cup would be brought home this time, even if our preparations were not up to scratch. 

So in keeping with the saying that you reap what you sow, we have come back to the drawing board. Not only did we remain glued to the bottom of our group but also the airlifting of over US$3 million players’ appearance fees has turned our motherland into a laughing stock.

Sober reflection

As with all things under the sun, this debate shall also come to pass sooner than later. As a nation, it behoves us to take a sober reflection on what went wrong. Most importantly, we should also look at the bigger picture of what has been going wrong over the years with a view to drawing positive lessons to guide us in our future conduct in all aspect of our lives. For it is said that an unexamined life is not worth living.

Indeed, it will be preposterous to limit this misfortune to only football since failure seems to have engulfed our entire national life. Show me which areas we are doing well and I will clap for you. Our educational system is in tatters. And health? There is nothing to write home about. Electricity supply is shambolic and the economy is a disaster.

One of the issues that has been over-flogged as the bane of our poor showing in the World Cup is the payment of appearance fees. This ostensibly led to a near boycott of our third match, which we eventually lost. Reading through media reports, we are fed with images of a bunch of indisciplined, ungrateful young Black Stars players whose only interest is milking the already dehydrated mother Ghana.

But why is nobody pointing a finger at the agency that promised them and reneged on its promise? Is this not also a mark of indiscipline? It is one thing impressing on the lads that because of the current economic situation, the government is unable to pay appearance fees, but promising them and failing to deliver smacks of bad faith and must be equally condemned.

Sulley Muntari may be the most indisciplined player the world has ever produced but would he have had cause to slap anybody if the appearance fees had been paid on time?.

Strikes

In any case, have we forgotten that we have built our nation on the back of strikes? And so when you don’t get your fair share of the national cake, the most prudent thing to do is to embark on a strike. Teachers do it, doctors and lecturers do it but when football players do it, hell breaks loose. Is it because they may lack the media savvy to appear on TV to articulate their concerns? The issue of collecting so much abroad is immaterial. They must receive adequate compensation for their work like we all do.

For me, the real issues accounting for our poor performance as well as that of our developing counterparts is more attitudinal than footballing reasons; simply put, managerial ineptitude.

While the Germans were busy planning, we chose to invest in ‘tsoobueism,’ populist revolutionary chants and praying in tongues, forgetting that though a football field may host political campaigns, the two are not the same. Joachim Loew, the modest German coach, had this to say: ”This world cup victory is a product of the excellent education and training in Germany.

It is the result of a lot of small improvements over time.” Of course, their journey started after the 2000 European Cup and with good planning, the result is the success we have been witnessing of German teams at all levels in recent years. Compare this to our ad hoc preparation towards the world cup and the picture becomes clearer.

Attitudinal problem

In looking at the bigger picture, it is instructive to note that apart from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, the World Cup has always been won by developed nations. I am talking about the likes of Germany, Spain, Italy, France and England. The critical question is: why are they always excelling while we continuously fail in all departments of life?

The answer is simple; same attitudes which have seen almost all our industries collapse. The same attitude that makes us live in poverty and squalor even in the midst of plenty has reared its ugly head in our football too. 

Unlike other nations that may not have excelled because they lacked the requisite talent, Ghana abounds in quality soccer talent to have made a decent showing. Our failure is clearly a vindication of the saying that ‘if we fail to plan, we plan to fail’.

The writer is Head of Public Relations and Protocol, University of Cape Coast, and a retired Senior Military officer. 

Writer’s email: kofikofi1977@hotmail.com