The cost of hiring Hughton
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has appointed the technical advisor of the Black Stars, Christopher William Gerard Hughton, as Head Coach of the senior national team. Details of his hiring are sketchy and observers are yet to catch a glimpse of the contract involving the two parties.
The development is, however, nothing new because the process is one of the ways the FA signed on various coaches they employed in the past.
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Immediate past coach Otto Addo received $40,000 before unceremoniously jettisoning the job for his German club.
It was known that former coaches James Kwesi Appiah and Charles Kwabla Akonnor each received monthly salaries of $40,000 (On his second stint with the Black Stars) and $25,000 respectively.
Kwesi Appiah took home $30,000 in his first stint with the Black Stars which started from 2012 to 2014.
It increased to $40,000 when he took over again as Black Stars coach from 2017 to 2020.
Serbian expatriate Milovan Rajevac had $30,000 as monthly salary in his last marriage with the Black Stars which saw him commandeer the Stars from 2020 to 2022.
Prior to this, his first stint with the Black Stars from 2008 to 2010 saw him receive $50, 000.
Some football experts have criticised the lack of transparency in the affairs of the FA when it comes to the conditions of service and salaries of the coaches the body hires. What is even more worrying is the fact that the salaries of these coaches are paid by the Ghanaian tax payer.
Be that as it may, Coach Hughton is expected to cost the nation more, taking into account the fact that he is an expatriate from England and the fact that he has hinted in some quarters he would settle for nothing.
But what will be the real cost of hiring Hughton following Ghana’s disastrous performance at the Qatar World Cup which he was part of.
Hughton’s winning rate and cost to clubs
Of the six clubs he coached in the United Kingdom namely Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, Birmingham City, Norwich City, Brighton and Hove Albion and Nottingham Forrest, Chris Hughton has superintended over 499 matches, won 195, drawn 139 and lost 165, having a success rate of just 39.1 per cent according to Wikipedia.
The cost of his cumulative success to these clubs is yet to be quantified but at an overall win rate of 39.1 percent it is fair to assume that it is in the downward side and this incurred costs for these clubs both on and off the pitch.
With a 39 per cent success rate even with more composed teams, coming to oversee the affairs of the weak Black Stars begs the question as to whether the national team is in good hands.
In exiting the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group Stage, the Black Stars made a little over $9 million in addition to the $2million FIFA gave to all participating countries to prepare for the tournament.
They could have made more money had they qualified to the Round of 16, Quarter-final, Semi-final and even the final.
Qualification to the Round of 16 earned a country $13million; quarter-final-$17million; fourth place- $25million; third place-27 million; runner-up-$30million; and first place- $42million.
Ghana’s best performance at the World Cup was in the Quarter-final of the 2020 World Cup in South Africa.
The Black Stars could have done better in Qatar after a disgrace in Brazil in 2014 and failing to qualify to Russia in 2018.
The Black Stars according to some soccer experts and pundits, performed abysmally at the World Cup due to the technical deficiency of the coach and his technical handlers.
Mr Hughton was a technical advisor at the World Cup and is now in charge of affairs. He was part of the decision making in Qatar. But Ghana performed abysmally. What new thing can he do?
The FA appointed him primarily because he has been with the team for some time. He knows the team. More qualified Argentine Hector Cuper was jettisoned for him.
But the country must not be astounded if his appointment comes at a huge cost, presently and in the future.
The cost of hiring Hughton may be painful and we must brace ourselves for that.