SPORTS guru and former President of the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA), Moses Foh Amoaning, has called on government to shift focus from the ‘losing’ Black Stars and reward Ghana’s past winners of the African Cup of Nations (AFCON).
In his campaign dubbed “Drop the Losers and Reward Past Winners,”Mr Amoaning said the Black Stars, over the past three decades, have not proven to be worthy of the resources invested on them by government.
“Millions of Ghana cedis have been spent on the current Black Stars and yet they have not shown the passion required to win an AFCON. I think we should rather reward the past winners for their exploits than continue wasting money on the Black Stars,” he stated.
Members of the teams that won Ghana’s four-time AFCON trophies in 1963,1965,1978 and 1982, he said, have really done a good job and must be commended since the Stars after many years, have not won the trophy.
Honouring past heroes, he said, was also important to the development of sports in the country as it would serve as motivation to the young ones.
Otherwise, he said, the entire Black Stars team and technical bench would need a shakeup for Ghana to be able to win the AFCON in coming years.
“It is not necessarily spending money on the team that would guarantee an AFCON trophy; having a team that has the passion to die for the nation and that is what Kwesi Appiah and his charges have failed to show Ghanaians,” he said.
Going forward, he said, the country needs proper technical handlers for the Black Stars that would help produce a team passionate to win a trophy.
Mr Foh Amoaning, who was part of the Commission of Enquiry set in 2014 to look into Ghana’s abysmal performance at the World Cup said, some recommendations of the Commission have been ignored and would not help in the growth of football.
He said, the Dzamefe Commission recommended that government should not send supporters to competitions, but the just-ended AFCON saw government sending supporters to Egypt to support theStars.
He added that, they recommended $5000 as bonus for the Black Stars, which hitherto was $10,000, but that also have not fully been implemented as the bonus received by the Black Stars currently was about $8,000.
“Recommendations like a functional technical directorate for Ghana that would also determine Ghana’s brand of football and develop it for all national teams, have also been ignored,” he stated.
He said, a review colloquium for the implementation of the Dzamefe report would be sent to government to ensure that they look back at the recommendations and apply them accordingly.
“Government spent a lot on the Commission which sat for almost three months and we would not throw all that away as the ideas would help transform Ghana’s football and win us the Nations Cup which has eluded us for 37 years,” he stressed.
“Good ideas including grass-root football development and building football academies across the country to groom local talents would be essential to winning the trophy and must be looked at again,” he stated.
BY MICHAEL D. ABAYATEYE
