As a football fan, I am more than disappointed and frustrated with the GFA, and Black Stars for the incessant failures of our pride and love- football over the years. Just like a lot of my contemporaries, I grew up watching the likes of Michael Essien Steven Appiah, Asamoah Gyan, Derek Boateng, John Mensah etc. Suffice to say, my generation was a lucky one. We were pampered with victories and became entitled to progress and allergic to defeats. Let me remind you of our chronologically successes:
2006-Round of 16 as first timers in world cup
2008-Afcon semi-finals
2010-Afcon finals
2010-World cup quarter finals
2012-Afcon semi-finals
2013-Afcon semi-final
2015-Afcon finals
2017-Afcon semi-finals
Even though we didn’t win a trophy, we were cruising.
When I started watching football, I became emotionally attached to Senegal, and Portugal as my football countries, because in 2002, I watched Senegal play the finals against Cameroon in Mali and I loved the squad! fast forward in the same year, I watched them in the world cup and oh my days! that performance in world cup has been etched in my memory forever. They were my 2010 Black Stars then. I watched Greece 2004 and experienced love at first sight with Christiano Ronaldo, thus my support for Portugal; let me not bore you with history.
All I am saying is, even as a football fan who enjoyed great moments with the Black Stars, I didn’t even know they existed when I started watching football. My first experience with the Black Stars was Afcon 2006- the boys in black were knocked out in the group stage of the tournament, since that tournament I saw a different Black Stars-winners.
I am not a sports journalist neither am I a football expert or analyst like Patrick Boni, but I love football and adding my voice, I believe, won’t hurt the sports fraternity. The problem with the Black Stars isn’t a coaching one, if you ask me. Success in football is like a curve. Historically, countries with immeasurable successes in football have had to reach the saturation point and later hit the rocks to a steady decline. Brazil won the 1994 world cup, were first runners-up in 1998, won the 2002 world, knocked out in the quarter finals in 2006 and 2010, semi finalist in 2014, quarter finalist in 2018 and 2022. As far as Brazil is concerned, the trajectory hasn’t been the best in recent times.
Germany lost the 2002 world cup finals to Brazil, were semi-finalist in 2006 and 2010, won the world cup in 2014, eleminated in group stage in 2018 and 2022 world cups- a great fall. Let me bring it home: Senegal in 2002 were arguably Africa’s best even though they lost the final to Cameroon. They were runners-up in Afcon and went ahead to be the only Afrcian country to reach the Quarter Finals of the FIFA World Cup. What happened to the team after that generation? failed miserably until 2019 when Sadio Mane and his squad changed the phase of team under a former player turned coach- Cisse. They lost the finals to Algeria in 2019, came back in 2022 to win the Afcon 2021; in that same year, they became the only African country to reach the round of 16 at the mundial. In 2024, they were eliminated at the quarter finals stage by the Host-Ivory Coast. After winning the 1998 Afcon in Burkina Faso, Egypt were absent on the continent’s football until 2006 when they won their 5th Afcon title. That squad won three consecutive Afcon trophies. After 2010, they couldn’t make it even to the semis until 2017 in Gabon.
I am giving this background so we appreciate the concept of the curve I mentioned earlier.
We need to face the truth as a country- we are experiencing the ebb of the curve and it is difficult to embrace it. It is quite unfortunate that between 2008 and 2017, our “golden generation” couldn’t win us a trophy. It will take us some years to rebuild and have another generation to bring back the memories. Let us not be in haste to change coaches for want of instant successes-that will be a knee jerk reaction. After Spain-a country that was struggling to even make the semi finals in major tournaments- reached the peak of the curve, they won 2008 and 2012 Euros; in between those years, they won the world cup. What happened after? they were eliminated in the group stage at the world cup in 2018; in 2022, after qualifying from the group stage by a whisker, they were beaten by Morroco at the round of 16 stage. You see the fall? but what happened after? they won the 2024 Euros. They reached the peak of the curve, declined to ebb, did something right to rise again. After Vicente del Bosque, they have appointed five coaches. All the coaches except Luis de la Fuente, achieved nothing worth Spain’s salt.
Since 2018, GFA has appointed about four coaches, and what has been the result? we keep retrograding. Give the team to Otto Addo, focus on building the players from the base, allow them to connect with each other both on and off the pitch, invest in good sports infrastructure and give time some time. We will get the results we need.
Some people try to blame the current decline on Anas’ expose. Fair, but let’s not forget that the expose came to fore in 2018 and as of that time, our fate in the world cup was already known- we were not qualifying, so yes, under Nyantakyi, we chalked successes, and right after the expose, how perennial failures began, but the curve has been declining and we didn’t pay attention- 2014 world cup was a typical example.
As a football fan, I wish GFA could hear me, but I am a bit far removed, so I can only opine. I know Ghanaians can’t wait to hear Otto Addo’s sack to assuage their pain, but don’t sack him. The team is at the ebb of the curve and we need to embrace it and rebuild.
A concerned citizen,
Chrisdad Kojo Arthur
