I have to put this one here following the comments posted by Ghana FA boss Mr Kurt Okraku over the past few days after Ghana’s disastrous AFCON Qualifying campaign.
Expressing his disappointment for missing out on the AFCON in Morocco next year, the under-fire president conceded the 2022 Qatar World Cup as the best moment in Ghana football describing it as the ‘Highest heights’.
Let’s look at Ghana at the World Cup.
2006: Round of 16 (had the youngest team with an average age of 23 years)
2010: Quarter-final (viewed as the only star of Africa in the tournament)
2014: Group Stage (had a game against Portugal judged as the tournament’s best game).
2022: Group Stage. (Won only one game)
The highest heights of Ghana at the World Cup are NOT the qualification to the Qatar 2022, finishing bottom and exiting just the group stage.
Look, for the Ghana Football Association president to accept that the 2022 World Cup is the highest highest of Ghana football then we have lost it all long ago.
How has he as FA president forgotten the product he’s struggling to supervise are four-time AFCON winners in 1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982?
Hitherto, to his election to the presidency in 2019, Ghana was constantly making appearances at the AFCON, finishing either one of the finals, semifinals or quarter-finals. That was the nature and standard of today’s tamed and harmless Black Stars.
Ghana’s record at the AFCON is stinking for a president who was trusted so much to put Ghana football on track post Normalization.
The Black stars at the AFCON under Mr Kurt Okraku for the last five years have seen no light just like happening across the other national football teams.
2021: Group Stage (winless in all 3 games)
2023:Group Stage (winless in all 3 games )
2025: Did not qualify (winless in all 6 qualifying games)
This series of embarrassing performances warrant nothing but resignation or sacking in any serious country.
His utterances that followed these fiascos did nothing to solutions but rather just add salt to injury. The recent posture of him scolding the Black Stars at dinner time last October for drawing 1-1 against Niger is there for everyone to see and judge his communication skills.
Is it possible for Kurt to remain silent if communication is a problem?
He’s at sixes and sevens as a leader. Does he have people around him to consult in situations like this? (Maybe, the regular sycophants)
This revealing knowledge is crestfallen and speaks volumes about the direction of Ghana football.
I will just mention the domestic leagues in passing in the analysis but what’s the state of the league today in 2024?
I write this not out of envy but just like many who are irked by this continuous sink of Ghana football under his limping leadership, want to see the once powerhouse of African football back to its feet and marching to glory.
The problem is a large pool where everyone in the football ecosystem is swimming due to leadership incapacities at the very top. The government cannot shy away either.
For his part in solving the quandary, Kurt as a matter of urgency buries all egos, reviews his cronyistic way of appointments to positions in the Association and embraces the influx of animadversions to guide his decisions.
