Mustapha Ussif Kurt Okraku Milovan Rajevac
Some Members of Parliament (MPs) have called for the overhaul of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the sacking of the Black Stars’ coach, Milovan Ravejac after Ghana’s humiliating defeat and early exit from the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Cameroon.
According to the lawmakers, Ghana Black Stars, one of the top teams on the continent of Africa, did not live up to the expectations of many across the continent, and in particular Ghanaians at the tournament, intimating that the Stars exited the first and basic stage of the tournament with just one point which is the worst performance in the history of Ghana.
Ranking Member of the Youth, Sports and Culture Committee of Parliament, Kobena Mensah Woyome, said the disappointing development could be attributed to poor management of the team right from coach selection, player selection, and poor coordination of pre-tournament preparations.
“The poor performance on the field of play such as player coordination, in-fighting, technical deficiencies and confusion can only be attributed to poor management decisions by the leadership of the Football Association and the government,” he indicated.
“Ghana has made significant strides and also suffered its low moments in international football tournaments in the past but none can be compared to the humiliating performance of the Black Stars as witnessed at the AFCON 2021,” he asserted while making a statement on the floor of Parliament.
For him, it is not only in football that Ghana is not doing well, and stated that “in recent times, Ghana’s performance and fortunes in various sport competitions keep dwindling as seen in the crash-out of our clubs at early stage of Confederation of African Football (CAF) competitions and that of the Women National Team at group stages and the inability of the under seventeen team to qualify for major tournaments.”
NPP MP for Adansi-Asokwa, Kobina Tahir Hammond called for the sacking of the team’s coach, Milovan Ravejac if the FA had not already done that.
According to him, football has become a serious business and demanded for the FA to put its house in order to rebuild the team to become a formidable one.
Mr. Hammond said the Black Stars remains the only uniting factor in Ghana but the team had become feeble, ploughed with division and in-fighting to the chagrin of Ghanaians.
“Football is a very serious business in Ghana, you journalists, tell those who are playing at the helm of affairs that they shouldn’t mess up our country. Ghana is the only place that if we are going to play God has to be our goalkeeper or striker. God has so much to do that he is always being called.”
“Mr. Sports Minister, sack the coach if you haven’t done that already or you yourself will be sacked. Let us not waste money on bad coaches of that caliber, it is not good. Let us get our locally trained coach to partner the boys,” he intimated.
MP for Talensi, Benson Tongo Baba, aka BT Baba, called for the reshuffling of the GFA executives by the constituents of the FA since the government cannot do so.
“Those who constitute the General Assembly of the FA must rise up to this challenge. They have the opportunity of telling the whole country that they did not hire Kwasi Appiah, they brought in CK Akonnor but we performed badly, they brought Milovan and they have asked him to also go home.”
“Let those who were doing the search and appointing the people go,” he urged and added that the Black Stars Management Committee cannot continue to be in office.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House