Veteran football administrator, Nana Fitz, is calling for the introduction of the Republican football team system initiated by Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, to build the Black Stars in the 60s.
He argued that the system was very effective as a means of keeping the national team busy all year round.
He explained that the system, introduced in the post-Independence era ensured that top players in the country were signed on by the state in a team that competed in the national league on non-scoring basis.
Nana Fitz noted that if such a system was revisited, not only would it maintain the cohesion of the team but would also keep the national team coaches very busy throughout the year.
In his view, it is unreasonable for the country to be paying coaches who remain redundant throughout the year except the few times that the national team plays in competitions.
“This is why some of the expatriate coaches can decide to stay in their home country throughout the year and come only when the Black Stars have a game to play because there is not much work to do”, he contended and recommended that the local Black Stars should be made to play on non- scoring basis in the league.
Nana Fitz, who owns Great FM, mentioned the lack of adequate preparation as the bane of Ghana’s shambolic performance at the World Cup, insisting that with the Republican system, all a coach needed to do was to invite a few foreign-based Ghanaian players to beef up the squad.
