By Ken Bediako
This is the title of a play by ace playwright, Ola Rotimi, currently being staged at the National Theatre in the capital. The title of the play tickles me so much.
As an unrepentant admirer of Manchester United FC of England and also an avowed supporter of the senior national football team, Black Stars, I have always believed the gods were to blame for the string of the incredibly poor performances by the two teams I love so much.Mind you I am not a superstitious fellow; even though I won’t pass under a ladder.The output of the two teams under review have been so shambolic I could only blame it on some unseen forces. But the good news is that I now think otherwise. Last Sunday’s highly spirited performance by Man United against free scoring Liverpool in their top Premier fixture at Anfield, has convinced me that the Old Trafford Devils catalogue of lack lustre outputs are clearly due to tactical indiscipline and lack of commitment by the players. Simple and short.A complete change of attitude from the massive 3-0 home defeat at the hands of unsung Bournemouth to a classic goalless affair with league title favourites Liverpool should inspire the Black Stars to do same in the upcoming Afcon in Cote DIvoire next month.Fresh from the shameful show in the Comoros, I expect the Black Stars to take inspiration from Man United’s rejuvenated fighting spirit and make Ghana proud at Afcon 24.United manager Ten Hag has shown his tactical acumen and the players have also exhibited fantastic fighting instincts. This is what I expect coach Hougton and the Black Stars to display in Cote DIvoire.Jordan Ayew and Co must be prepared to show they value wearing the national jerseys and not just some “Football mercenaries” doing the nation some favour by lowering the Black Stars Jersey. It is on record that the Black Stars original disastrous Afcon show was in Cote DIvoire in 1984 (exactly 40 years to Afcon 2024).It was the first time the Black Stsrs had been booted out in the very first round of the bi-annual continental football festival after a then record six time cup final appearances in 1963 1965,1968 1970, 1978 and 1982.This was when the Black Starts were defending the Cup won in Libya 1982 but were quickly bundled out by Nigeria 1-0 and Algeria 2′-1. The 2-1 win over Malawi was not sufficient to make any progress.To be fair this was not the first time the Black Stars had failed to properly defend the title.It also happened in Nigeria 1980 when the new cup was at stake following Ghana”s capture of the original cup for keeps in 1978.Nigeria won the new cup but the popular excuse was the Black Stars were demotivatedfollowing the failure to honour a promise to build free houses for the victorious 1978 aquad most of whom, were in the 1980 contingent. In that tournament Ghana drew with Algeria, in the first match, beat Guinea 1-0 and lost to Morocco 1-0.More on this later.The 1984 monumental flop was the culmination of series of administrative bottlenecks and blunders on the technical bench. The football season had started with the sudden resignation of GFA chairman Lawson Ackah Yensu which became the main topic in football circles. He was quickly replaced by Katey Caesar with an executive comprising Commander Ofori Yentumi, Nick Dadzie Deputy Managing Director Food Distriburion Corporation, Major George Lamptey FIFA referee and Kwaku Ampem Darko secretary.At this stage the Ministry of Sports decided that henceforth the GFA chairman would be elected at a Congress comprising regional football associations and representatives from the Armed Forces, Police, Prisons, Universities Sports Association, Schools and Colleges federation and the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG).At the first of such a Congress held in Accra on February 25, Mr Caesar polled 31 votes to emerge chairman as against five votes by Nick Dadzie who became vice chairman. Both were government nominees.The new GFAchairman’s first monumental decision was to sack Black Stars head coach Osam Duodu two weeks to the afcon 14 in Cote Divoire. Osam Duodu was replaced by Kwasi Afranie, and as predicted by the doomsayers, the Black Stsrs flopped and were eliminated in the very first round. Unsurprisinglyunder pressure Katey Caesar resigned and was replaced by Elias Teyve a management consultant and part time radio sports commentator.It is my wish that nothing will happen for GFA chairman Kurt Okraku to resign nor Chris Houghton to be sacked at this ninth hour.The Black Stars have the support of all of us crazy football lovers to put smiles on our faces come Afcon 24 in a few weeks time.Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.
