Is it foreign or local coach?

The current debate in Ghanaian football circles is whether the country should go for a foreign or national coach following the decision of French Coach Claude Le Roy not to renew his contract and the Ghana Football Association’s haste in sending the French man away a month before the contract expires.

It is surprising that this old debate should resurface because as far as the records go Ghanaian coaches have long shied away from the Black Stars as far back as 1991 when German Burkhard Zieze had to take over from Osam Duodu for lack of performance. Since then it has been foreigners all the way except some brief periods when Coaches Aggrey Fynn and later on Jones Attuquayefio had some unsuccessful brief stints with the Black Stars.

The truth of the matter is that those who are clamouring for local coaches are unable to name any coach because they know all of them have been tried, tested but failed. The argument that the Black Stars four Africa Cup triumphs of 1963, 1965, 1978,&1982 were by local coaches has ceased to be relevant. The last time Ghana topped Africa was 26 years ago. The suspicion is that most of the so called new generation top Ghanaian coaches lack self confidence Perhaps the only exception is Kwasi Afranie who is so overconfident that he would even be prepared to handle the Brazilian national team at short notice damn the consequences. That is his weakness.

Crowd favourite Sam Arday who won Olympic football bronze for Ghana at the Barcelona Olympics publicly announced his retirement from national duties a decade ago and it took a lot of persuasion to get him as stand in coach in 2006 when Portuguse Mariano Barreto left the Black unceremoniously with a World Cup assignment against Congo just around the corner. Addy’s best show that day was a drab home draw against the Congolese.

It must be a worry that for the past decade Ghana has had an incredible turn over of foreign coaches. From the second coming of Burkhard Ziese to Ishmael Kurtz, Ralf Zumdick, Mariano Barreto, Ratomir Dujkovic then Claude Le Roy they have all tried to make their presence felt. But the snag is after a promising start, they all left in unhealthy circumstances and the common refrain was that the media was unreasonably critical.

With this background it would be a good idea if the football authorities would sign a memorandum of understanding with the media especially the mushrooming FM radio stations that devote nearly 10 hours each day for football to be generous in praise and slow to criticize so that the new coach to replace Le Roy would have some peace of mind to concentrate on his plans to qualify the Black Stars for World Cup 2010.

I t is hoped such an understanding would not be interpreted as a measure to gag the media. The Black Stars qualification for World Cup 2010 is so crucial tat the Football Association has amended the constitution to stay in power to see that dream realized.

Forget about the violence against foreigners in South Africa we in Ghana will tell the present generation of South Africans the enormous help our first President gave to their ancestors during those blood and thunder days of apartheid and they will definitely be accommodating.

Meanwhile the search for a foreign intensifies as stand in coach Sellas Tetteh failed to snatch a win in his first assignment against Australia in Sydney. Of course with the absence of top professionals Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari and Stephen Appiah there was always going to be a vacuum. No wonder the Black Stars threw away countless scoring chances and gave away a cheap goal through over elaboration at the rear.

Lets not forget that June 1st is just around the corner and the Black Stars would have to gather all resources both on the field of play and on the bench to give Libya a good run for their money in the World Cup qualifying preliminaries at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi romantically called the Garden City of West Africa