The former Vice President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), George Afriyie says the lack of experience among the country’s football administrators could also constitute to the abysmal performance from the national team in recent times.
The ex-GFA boss emphasized that the inconsistency in decision making would diminish the reputation of Ghana football of which has become evident in the recent Africa Cup of Nation’s (AFCON) tournament.
According to him, his tenure in the association was overwhelming since there were a blend of well experienced football administrators mixed with dedicated and young executives.
“We have been so fortunate that some of us when we got appointed as Executive committee members, we had very experienced club administrators who were part of the committee. Mr. Awuah Nyamekye, Fred Pappoe, Randy Abbey, Kwesi Nyantakyi and a good number of them. These blend of experienced officials were very influencing and fearless men. They were dedicated to the development and improvement of the country’s football,” George Afriyie told Ohene-Brenya Bampoe on the Happy Sports Show.
“We were the young ones among the greats who joined the committee as freshers. Despite never being involved with top management football, we were very patient in the learning process. It really helped us and shaped us going into the future,” he added.
Mr. Afriyie believes it would be unfair to the current administration for him to ascertain their impact since he has been on the side lines for a while.
However, he believes the immediate directive by the current President, Kurt Okraku to release Kwesi Appiah off his post as the nation team’s coach to him was contradictory to the President’s own visions.
“My only problem was after the normalization committee handled down Ghana football. Despite the fact that the members didn’t actually understand the sports they took advantage of their own experience and tapped in the ideas of those who knew the game. It was an opportunity for administrators to show that they could lead, and thanks to the media for the works. When Kurt won the nod, I congratulated him and gave him my support and I’m sure others also did. One of his vision was to improve the state of the national teams throughout the ranks. In doing so he needed to make appointments to facilitate or make that a success. His first major move which was to relief Kwesi Appiah was ideal, but to appoint C.K Akonnor seems more of a downgrade. Personally I think Kwesi was more experienced having worked under previous coaches and taken the Stars to the World Cup and AFCON,” he stressed.
By: Jude Tackie
Follow us on Twitter: @happyfmghana
Follow us on Instagram: @happy989fm
Like our Facebook page: happy98.9FM
Listen to us on 98.9 FM and on our affiliate networks;
Neesim 100.1FM – Northern, Savannah and North East Regions
Akonoba 92.7FM – Bono, Ahafo and Bono East Regions
Visit https://www.happyghana.com for more updates
