The Ghana Football Association confirmed last week that the Black Stars were going to pitch camp in Johannesburg to prepare intensively for the 2023 AFCON. The response from Ghanaians was harsh as the FA suddenly changed its plans and decided to move to Kumasi for preparations.
Chris Houghton and his team started preparations on 2nd January at Abrankese as many thought it was going to be at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi.
Why Abrankese instead of Kumasi?
Reports say that the Baba Yara is not okay for the preparations as the conditions are not fit enough for the team. They instead decided to train at the Dr Kwame Kyei Sports Complex in Abrankese, home of newly promoted side Nations FC.
Black Stars players were not pleased with the facility as they feared they were going to get injured hence the decision to move to Abrankese.
Simply, the whole of the nation does not have any fit facility for our national team’s preparations. After many years of active participation in sports, why do we lack a common facility for our national team?
World Cup money
Why would a sensible country led by reasonable people lack a facility for its national teams? A nation that has won AFCON (4 times) and been at the World Cup on 4 occasions cannot tell us that they do not have a single venue to host its national team.
Mali, Mauritania and the Gambia have never been to the World Cup but have wonderful training facilities.
Senegal, Morocco, Cote d’Ivoire and Egypt have all been to the World Cup and boast of world-class facilities for sports.
How low can Ghana go? Per Newton of Kessben 93.3 FM in Kumasi, Ghana gained 20 million dollars from the 4 World Cups attended. Have we been able to account for it? Imagine using just half of the 20 million dollars to invest in our facilities.
Our spoilt FIFA-approved venues
Before the 2008 AFCON, Ghana built two new proper venues- Aliu Mahama Stadium in Tamale and Sekondi-Takoradi Stadium. Baba Yara Sports Stadium and Accra Sports Stadium were renovated to world-class standards. Cape Coast Stadium was opened on 3rd May 2016 with a capacity of 15,000.
The above 5-mentioned venues were all FIFA-approved venues so what has happened from 2008 to 2024?
Ghana’s horrible maintenance culture
We have watched every proper sports center rot to the level that we require huge some of money to renovate them.
Ghana is well known for its poor maintenace culture as authorities do not care about the state or any national property. Most everyday Ghanaians are irresponsible to the extent that they do not care about anything that bears the name Ghana.
How can a proper human being ride a motorbike on a pitch that we play football on? How high was he?
Professor Twumasi and co must be fired
A whole professor is leading the National Sports Authority yet we haven’t seen anything meaningful from his administration. The lowest point was when he hired out the Accra Sports Stadium for Christmas jamborees at the expense of football. Hearts of Oak’s bankroller, Togbe Afede XIV and SWAG president Kwabena Yeboah lamented that decision.
Christmas is over, what is the state of the Accra Sports Stadium now? How much did he get from the jamborees? When is he going to render accounts to the nation?
Karela against Medeama in Week 17 of the Ghana Premier League at the Aliu Mahama Stadium in Tamale didn’t deserve to be a Premier League game. The pitch was the worst thing I have seen in football. When the game was ongoing, organisers were right on the touchline organising their machines and mounting the stage to host a concert. Where can you see this apart from Ghana?
The Shameful generation
This generation has proved to lack the common sense our great-great-great-great grandparents applied in developing the country.
The embarrassment from Ghanaian leaders is getting out of hand. The country is sinking and politicians must take 90% of the blame because their decisions have been poor for the last 16 years. The ordinary citizen’s 10% share is sometimes crazier than the politician’s 90%.
Ghana is sick in every aspect and we need proper doctors to heal us. Our sporting facilities are all dead and we demand total renovation of all the venues.
This is the saddest moment I have witnessed in the history of Ghana’s sports
CAF and FIFA must ban irresponsible countries
During the opening games of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, countries like Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Niger, Sao Tome and Guinea among others did not have any FIFA-approved venues to host their opponents. These countries ought to be banned from football until they can get proper ones from FIFA because they are disgracing themselves, CAF and FIF in toto. Ghana will soon join these irresponsible countries if we do not get serious in 2024.
