Concentrate on local league to end Black Stars’ trophy drought – Former Sports Minister
A former Youth and Sports Minister, Kwame Saara Mensah has shared his opinion on how the trophy drought for the Black Stars team could end.
Kwame Saara Mensah says the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the Ministry of Youth and Sports must focus on developing football in the country by preparing players from the grassroots and promoting them to the national team.
Speaking on PM Express: Personality Profile with Ayisha Ibrahim, he noted that the act of just giving call-ups to players from ‘nowhere’ without any adequate preparations is hindering the performance of the Black Stars national team.
“I think we may have to concentrate on the national league. That is football in the country. At the moment, it looks like all our attention is on the professional game and any youth at all at whatever age wants to be a professional and I do not think we can achieve much with that.
“Those days when Ohene Djan was here and he was the Director of Sports under Nkrumah’s regime and you could see that sports, in general, was being handled from the grassroots right through the secondary schools, we had the academicals and from there you have the junior national teams and from there you progress into the national team.
“These days they sit down and there is a tournament going on somewhere and tomorrow they announce a team of 24 to come and nobody even knows them,” he said.
According to him, the situation can also be attributed to the funding of the national team.
He expressed worry over how the national team could adequately be funded by private individuals in the current economic situation.
“We have the talents there is no doubt about that but we have to really sit down and see how best we can groom them and achieve something for the country.”
As a former Youth and Sports Minister, he led the starlets to win the GVC World Cup in Italy for the first time.
He also led the national team to qualify for the African Cup in Senegal in 1992 for the first time in 12 to 15 years.
The national team has not won any trophy for the past 40 years. The national team was severely criticised for their poor performance in the just-ended African Cup of Nations hosted by Cameroun.
However, the Black Stars managed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup scheduled to commence in November and hosted by Qatar.
This could be another opportunity for the team to rekindle the love and support from Ghanaians.
Source: Ghana News
