Government will support Kwesi Appiah to succeed — Minister
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Isaac Asiamah, has given an assurance that the government will provide Kwasi Appiah with all the resources he needs to succeed in his second stint as the coach of the senior national team.
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Appiah was handed a two-year contract and will start his duties on May 1, but even before he assumes office, Mr Asiamah says the former Ghana international should rest assured that his latest tenure will witness a massive improvement in terms of the resources that will be at his disposal.
"If we have provided all the resources to Avram Grant and at the end of the day we had nothing, our local coach should be supported adequately to perform the function of a national coach, and we shall do that," the minister said in an interview yesterday after a tour, of the Azumah Nelson Sports Complex.
"So, the local content has started with the appointment of a local coach and as I said, he is not just any local coach but a very competent local coach who once took us to the World Cup" he noted.
The minister contends that Appiah was let down by the previous government when they "failed" to honour their promises to his squad and that he said ultimately, led to Ghana's disastrous campaign at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
"Government failed to honour its promise when it had promised the players that it was going to pay their appearance fees before Brazil. They went to the training tour it never came, went to Brazil, the tournament began and played the first match it didn't come, played second match it didn't come so you expect some of these things,” Mr Asiamah said.
"For some of us, the blame game should not be put with Kwesi Appiah, the government has said it and it is on record that at the time they did not support Kwesi Appiah, we are going to support Kwesi Appiah with all the resources he needs to function as a coach".
Mr Asiamah also urged all Ghanaians to throw their overwhelming support behind Kwesi Appiah so he could follow in the footsteps of previous local coaches who have won AFCON titles for Ghana.
"So, let us all support coach Kwesi Appiah to succeed after all he is one of our own, Ghanaians let us be proud of ourselves.”