Ghana football has seen dwindling fortunes over the past thirty years as a result of the failure of our top clubs to produce great performances.
Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak, Ghana’s two most glamorous teams, have been abysmal in African competitions. The reasons are not difficult to grasp.
The nation, over the years, has failed to invest in the local leagues. The lower divisions which produce these players have been struggling to survive. They do not have the resources to train and take good care of their players who are later sold to the premier division clubs.
These feeding clubs are virtually nonexistent due to lack of funds to nurture the players for the premier teams.
The premier teams themselves are always financially handicapped and, therefore, cannot retain the services of players who show class in their play. These premier teams are unable to pay their players well for them to be motivated to continue plying their trade in the country.
Some players are paid as low as GHC300 and GHC500 a month. If players in these categories get clubs outside willing to pay them US$2000, they would definitely leave.
This has accounted for the large exodus of local players to some African countries which were not known for good football.
What is the challenge is funds. We have failed to invest in the local league. The focus has always been on the Black Stars and its affiliates. Year after year, huge budgetary allocations are made for the Black Stars.
The sad part is that, despite these huge investments, the Black Stars has failed to win any major trophy for all these years. We lack quality players and this has resulted in Ghana shopping for players outside to change nationalities to Ghana so that they can play for the Black Stars. Success has been a long way away despite these efforts.
We at ABCNews wish to appeal to the Government of Ghana to reduce the huge sums of monies channeled into the Black Stars and use same to develop the local league.
Clubs across the various divisions must be given funds to run their clubs and train better players to feed our teams and the Black Stars as well. The time to inject funds into the local leagues is now!
MyABCLive