Using home-based players makes sense
This week the sports media have been dominated by the raging feud between the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the Minister of Youth and Sports, a development which is distracting the authorities from focusing on the critical issues needed to develop our football.
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The important issues bothering Ghana football, for which reason the FA President, Kwesi Nyantakyi, and Nii Lante Vanderpuye don’t see eye to eye, are worth considering, even though the main argument has been the form of the minister’s concerns, not the substance.
Either way, the two leading figures must find a common ground to address the issues away from the media.
The most recent issue that is splitting heads is a suggestion that home-based players be used for Ghana’s upcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Rwanda next month, instead of the wholesale importation of the team’s foreign-based players.
Instead of a dispassionate consideration of the merits and demerits of the issue, the messenger has become the subject of discussion.
The ministry’s suggestion for home-based players to be used in order to save tens of thousands of dollars on air fares to bring down the predominantly Europe-based players makes a lot of sense.
It is understood that the ministry wants to save money to fund the Black Maidens’ FIFA Under-17 World Cup campaign in Jordan next month, and given the fact that the Stars have already booked their ticket to next year’s Nations Cup in Gabon, their next qualifier is not very essential.
In fact, Wilfred Osei Palmer, a member of the Black Stars Management Committee, said on radio that the FA could not rescind its decision because invitation letters had already been sent to the players’ clubs.
That is where the Graphic Sports differs with the FA. Given the financial challenges, it is important for the ministry and the FA to prioritise the two international assignments, so that more resources are devoted to the more important obligation.
It makes both financial and sporting sense that the Maidens’ campaign be given priority because Ghana has already booked its place at the 2017 AFCON. Besides, since Avram Grant has successfully executed the qualifying campaign, it is only logical that he rests key players and concentrates on the home-based Stars for the Rwanda match, so that his key players are rested for more important assignments.
And for an FA livid at the minister’s recent criticism of the attractiveness of the Premier League, the Rwanda game offers a fine opportunity to test the local players who are presently in peak form as the Premiership reaches the home stretch and is dominated by the title chase and relegation battles.
It would be unthinkable to suggest that the Israeli cannot find suitably qualified players in the local league to face Rwanda, the way the late Jones Attuquayefio fielded a home-based side (Hearts of Oak, for that matter) against a star-studded Super Eagles in a World Cup qualifier in 2001.
The Rwanda game, therefore, presents an opportunity for Grant and his assistant Maxwell Konadu to build on the strengths of the local team and further develop the local players for bigger challenges ahead.