NYANTAKYI MUST GO

The imbroglio that has engulfed the Ghana Football Association over the years appears to be assuming an embarrassing magnitude that should no longer be allowed to continue. Before the disgraceful Nyantakyi exposee,there have been court injunctions, dissolution of sub-committees, referees bribery allegations and ouster of a substantive Vice-Chairman. Rather than taking stock, learning from our performance over the years and planning ahead, the FA boss and his henchmen are busy engrossing in power tussle while little attention is being accorded sound football administration in the country. Going by FIFA rules, GFA is meant to be autonomous,independent and free of government’s control. The plight of the GFA worsened with the election of Kwesi Nyantakyi as the boss of the Association. Our appearance at the world stage (world cup), covered the mess around the FA boss. Nyantakyi, inherited an FA well structured fundamentally by his predecessors especially Mr Ben Kofie. Ben concentrated on the junior teams and the result of was what we saw after his demise. Hiding behind that senseless FIFA rule, Nyantakyi dribbled around the various government and appeared more powerful than our elected Presidents. Apart from his lack of vision and disrespect for our governments, the Nyantakyi-led GFA had been bogged down by one crisis or another going from the alleged high level corruption, match fixing, strained relationship among committee members, and other nefarious activities. Our local league is almost dead. The two big clubs in the country Hearts and Kotoko have become irrelevant in Africa because of Nyantakyi’s abysmal performance. All he does is using the Association’s funds to pay bribes to referees and football managers on the continent to vote him to top positions. From what have been seeing so far, we can safely say that Nyantakyi his lieutenants have no real interest in developing the game. Unfortunately, we have failed to tap the immense opportunity in the football business for national development in the sense that it has the tendency to be the only sport that is capable of self funding and revenue generation in Ghana and elsewhere. But what are we seeing under Nyantakyi…he keeps on promising football people with sweet words after every abysmal performance by our national teams. Ghanaians have channeled all their interest into foreign leagues because of this unfortunate trend.

Nyantakyi told Ghanaians was not going to contest the next FA boss contest in 2019. His decision not to contest was what triggered the decision by Vice George Afriyie and other hardworking members of the Association to show interest. After George who served him faithfully as his Vice had made the declaration, he sacked him and replaced him with somebody he could manipulate. Nyantakyi’s attitude has taken much toll on our volatile football administration as virtually all the tiers of the league are going through serious challenges. From the unfolding events, one can say that Nyantakyi is inarguably the architect of the mess our football is going through.

How many of us can off head, mention four players of our darling clubs? Ghanaians have lost interest in our local football and the situation keeps on escalating every year because of technology. Instead of patronising our local leagues, people spend their time watching foreign matches in their homes. What is the FA doing to balance this trend? Nyantakyi has no clue to that. His only interest is paying millions of dollars to colleague soccer administrators to vote him to occupy top positions, pay bribes to referees to manipulate matches in favour of his teams local and rational. All these facts shall soon come out for the public to know the kind of person we have as our FA boss. I am told the executive committee of the FA has issued a solidarity message and warning Ghanaians to stay off Nyantakyi. I don’t want to describe that as cheap arrogance. Who told them that they own Ghana and Ghana Football. Who told them Nyantakyi is above our laws. The man has made damning statement about our elected president and their reaction is that useless statement they’ve issued in support of their paymaster? They shouldn’t downplay the public’s anger. Ghanaians will demonstrate against the FA and make sure we clear all officers from the place if the system allows Nyantakyi to walk out a free man.What he did is criminal bad we don’t need heavenly train lawyers to give us legal lectures on that. We need our football simple.

Yes, Ghanaians will play the normal political chess game with the issue. But all parties, all forces and soccer enthusiasts must see this as God’s divine intervention. Whilst we played our politics, we must as well think about the future of our Football.