Kwabena Osei Asare

The truth hurts, but it has to be said as it is. Parliament's Select Committee on Sports is truly disappointing. Ghana football needs a radical shift that many who actually have their investments in the game aren't ready for. The football people can sink their club investments into a pit of no recovery. Some of us won't bat an eye. But when it comes to the mismanagement of our national teams, we won't be quiet.

Bus-less teams but rich pockets. In fairness, it helps to know some of the questions that led to the answers or remarks by the @ghanafaofficial President, Kurt Okraku, in relation to the @GhanaBlackstars when he appeared before Parliament’s Select Committee on Sports. That said, some of the answers actually expose the complicity of both the GFA and our governments in the mismanagement of the senior national team. The revelation by the GFA President that all our national teams share one bus, which is broken down, underscores the culpability of the GFA and successive governments in the substandard administration of football, and largely sports development on the part of our governments. For instance, how much does a bus cost, and how much have Black Stars management committee members shared amongst themselves from our last two World Cups alone? Haven’t our governments in the last two World Cups approved these unconscionable payments to the committee members? Was there more than a bus? How much really is the cost of a bus? Have the GFA and Jubilee House ever considered that we could invest in the purchase of at least one bus for a national team instead of spending on themselves for no real work? My initial point about the kind of questions that were asked, placed in their proper context, will help analyse, if not accept, the answers Kurt gave. Nonetheless, Kurt’s disclosure helps no one except to reinforce our position that his FA and our governments do not care about the things that matter regarding the management of our national teams. If not, I ask again: how much was shared in total by the Black Stars management committee in the last two World Cups, and what is the cost of one bus suitable for use by any of our national teams? Individuals who own clubs can buy buses for their clubs but the state, Ghana, can’t buy a bus or buses for national teams? What real work have the management committee members been doing that required that, in total for the two World Cups, they were paid over a million dollars, when national teams in a so-called football nation share one bus? I fail to see the thinking of both the GFA and our governments on the continuous disbursement of thousands of dollars to themselves at the detriment of pressing issues of football development. The GFA and the political class who have had, and still have, a taste of power must bow their heads in shame over the disappointing state of football, going by Kurt’s revelation, and generally sports development in the country. The GFA President did his organisation no favour; neither did he do any good service to our governments, nor did he help the people of Ghana with his damning revelation. Kurt’s disclosure is a sorry verdict on how the national teams have been mismanaged with the tacit yet counterproductive approval of our governments. Change your ways, GFA. Get serious, Ghana government!