Is there bad blood among our sports authorities?
The longest running commentary in our sports appear to be the feud between the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and its supervising ministry, the Ministry of Youth and Sports. The problem between both bodies is their standing with the country’s national teams.
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That is the Black Stars, the Black Queens and the other ‘BLACK’ national teams. The big question is around ownership and funding.
The fact should be made clear to all. My knowledge is that no country, no nation owns its national team. This is a paradox, but it is the plain fact. Football is owned and organised by FIFA at the world level. And FIFA is owned and organised by National Football Associations (FA) or Federations. And these Federations or FAs are the ones which own and operate their various national teams. Simple and short.
It has often been emphasised that the Ghana Football Association (GFA) is an establishment of football clubs and their affiliated bodies. The GFA is just like the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT). It has already been stated that national football teams are owned and managed by national football federations which are all members of their respective regional federations such as, the Confederation of African Football (CAF). And these regional confederations own and operate FIFA.
Some year past, the Government of Ghana owned and operated football. But now it does not. FIFA does not accept it. And it is FIFA which manages and operates world football, and thus, if a country wants to belong to FIFA and participate in its activities, programmes and tournaments, it has to abide by its laws and regulations. Football is operated between football federations. FIFA does not operate football with countries. If and when the Black Stars wish to play a friendly match with Nigeria’s Super Eagles, its done with and through the Nigerian Football Federation. These are the operative facts.
Now, the bone of contention in Ghana which is widely canvassed by the hawks in government and their followers is that because the Ghana government fund and sponsors the training activities and matches of the national teams, the Black Stars and other national teams belong to the Ghana Government. This reasoning agrees with commonsense. But this is beyond common sense. It must be noted that the products, the produce and again the profit from national teams engagements go to the government. When the Super Green Eagles play a friendly match in Ghana, the gate fees are collected by the government agent, the National Sports Authority (NSA). No account is made to the GFA.
Additionally, it is also a fact that if and when the Government of Ghana has to advance money for the funding of the activities of the national teams, the GFA prepares a budget or estimates to the ministry of Youth and Sports. The ministry after scrutinising and examining the budget, sends its recommendations to the cabinet, that is the Osu Castle or now the Flagstaff House. And after cabinet scrutiny and approval, the money, as approved are sent to the Ministry of Youth and Sports. Whether they carry the approved money in a travelers check, in a bag, portfolio or by an airplane, it is in the custody of an accountant from the ministry. He is the spending officer and he is the one who disburses it. That is, if and when anything should be purchased, such as even a piece of plaster, no GFA official handles the money. It is the ministry’s accountant, who accompanied the players and management members of the team, who gives account on how the money was spent. And if there were any unspent money, he is the one who should return it to the ministry. The GFA cannot account for money it did not handle.
This is the way the GFA has existed and operated till recently. And this is how it has managed to build and operate the national teams and given them the present excellent brand names. They might not have won any trophies or international awards, but the various teams have achieved a lot. If for nothing at all our Black Stars have participated in all FIFA World Cup tournaments since 2006. In these tournaments, the Black Stars were eliminated after one preliminary group stage. But that even meant we were among the world’s best 32 football nations. In the 2006 world cup tournament we ended up being among the World’s best 16 teams. And yet in 2010 we ended up being among the world’s best 8 teams. That was a single digit, and but for a questionable wicked refereeing, we would have ended among the world’s best four, two or even won the cup.
And now that we are about to set an African record of being the only team to appear the fourth continuous time, we are pinching and taunting one another. And this is being led by people in the highest authority in sports.
Almost on a daily basis, there are damaging accusations and name callings, not in the boardrooms, but in the media. Players and their managers are subjected to unnecessary verbal attacks by people who should be their mentors, protectors and mangers.
Although it is not being openly admitted, all indications are that the nation Ghana is broke and dry of liquid cash. School managers, out of character have been forced to publicly threaten to close down all our schools because, expected and greed fundings are not coming. As a nation we owe almost all our contractors. Again, we are finding it difficult to fuel our generating facilities that provide us with light and energy.
And so if because we are financially handicapped we cannot, as usual, fund our football campaigns, we would all have to understand and appreciate our temporary financial difficulties. The answer is not in labeling our players as unpatriotic and ungrateful. The answer is not to resort to the media.
There are always journalists and news reporters who are ready to attend press conferences and report. These days modern technology has provided them easy means of voice recording and playbacks.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports is within a few minutes’ drive away from the GFA Secretariat. And both the GFA and the ministry have very spacious boardrooms which are over-air-conditioned for meetings. It should, therefore, be possible for the two feuding parties to meet and sort out their differences. The players appear ready to listen, we should be ready to engage them.
With the political fervor and polarisation of the country, our sports, especially our football appears to be one of the few remaining unifying areas. Football is big business, even in Ghana.
It is important to remind our big men in sports that they are there to serve and help provide us with the joy and entertainment that the game of football brings. Those among them who want to behave like Turks and display how powerful they are should spare us our joy and weekend entertainment. Nobody should disturb and destabilize our national teams.
