My colleague Ebo Quansah, former President of the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) is obviously worried that despite all the recent sports successes achieved by Ghana this year is not reflected in the media. I have a sneaky feeling that the current generation of sports journalists may be more interested in fault finding than lauding any achievements.

In football which is national pastime, the National Under-21 team, the Black Satellites emerged winners of the maiden West African Football Union (WAFU) tournament to add to their qualification for the impending African Youth Championships in Rwanda.

Coach Sellas Tetteh, who was the architect of this double victory, was only mentioned in dispatches as compared to the heavy doses of criticism levelled against him when he failed to shine during his brief attachment to the senior national team Black Stars.

Black Stars Serbian Coach, Milovan has been hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons. He has been the subject of media attacks because of his inability to express himself well in English with the players. He is reported to be using the sign language which the critics say is not effective enough. The Serbian has acknowledged this handicap and he is busily perfecting his English, saying that with time there would be perfect understanding between him and the players.

The able way the Serbian steered the home based Black Stars to eliminate perennial rivals Nigeria from the maiden African Nations Championships, speaks volumes about the credentials of the coach but that doesn’t seem to be good news in the view of the sporting media. With the first leg in Accra ending in a tricky 3-2 win for Ghana, Nigeria needed only a goal to carry the day, but the Serbian tactician worked a strategy that repulsed all the menacing attacks by the ferocious looking Nigerians and the scores remained barren thus sailing Ghana into the novelty championships in Cote d’Ivoire next year.

The first leg in Accra was quite frightening as Nigeria took a commanding 2-0 lead, but the Stars ability to fight back to win 3-2 confirms veteran coach and football administrator Ben Koufie’s verdict that Milovan is a good coach .“I have seen him working and after speaking with him a couple of times I can tell he is a very good coach, a very good developer. If he manages to break that language barrier, Ghana will benefit a lot from his experience” said Ben Koufie. This should be good news because we have a tough World Cup qualifying schedule ahead.

My observation is that, the media is putting too much premium on the Serbian’s inability to express himself well in English. What most people have lost sight of is that, his assistant Kwasi Appiah is such an intelligent chap that he has been able to master the Serbian’s sign language cum the broken English and the pair is right on course to deliver the goods.

Talking about sports journalists’ penchant for fault finding with coaches brings to mind the alleged derogatory comments by the chairman of the Black Starlets Management Awuah Nyamekye about Coach Kwasi Afranie. The Black Starlets are Ghana’s Under- 17 team, which got eliminated by Gambia in the Africa U-17 championships. Ghana had won the first leg at home 3-1 but lost the return 2-0 and Mr. Nyamekye who was chairman of the Football Association from 1990-1992 ,was reported in the Graphic Sports to have questioned the technical competence of Coach Afranie . He is alleged to have suggested that the coach must not be made to handle any national team again because he had passed his prime.

The children of coach Afranie have threatened legal action against the Starlets Chairman and the newspaper that made the publication. In a quick reaction, the former FA Chairman has denied granting any such interview or making any such comments but in an in interesting twist the paper is arguing that even if Nyamekye did not make those comments, it was no crime if he did that. The caution is that, if you take too much liberty in the passion for football you may end up being accused of character assassination.

Much as it is an accepted convention that coaches always take the blame for defeats, it would be stretching the matter too far if a coach is banned from handling any national team because of one defeat.

If coaches were to be sacked for every single defeat there won’t be any more coaches left on the benches, the inimitable Alex Ferguson of Manchester United included.

May I suggest to my colleague sports journalists that in dealing with coaches in all sports disciplines, one should be generous in praise and slow to criticize.

Cheers and keep loving sports.