DO WE NEED A LOCAL COACH FOR BLACK STARS?

ANY COACH, be he foreign or local will be welcomed if he is qualified and ready for the job presently; but the argument seems to be the same as most soccer administrators on the continent believe that expatriate coaches are better than the local ones.

The reality on the ground is that, most people following the game of football in Africa have noticed that, foreign coaches seem to be more disciplined and serious in their activities than those on the continent when it comes to the national team job.


Fortunately for Ghana particularly, the nation won the Africa Cup of Nations for four times with local coaches, it is also real that since its inception in 1957, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) made it a law not to allow more than two professional players to feature at a time.

The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) advised CAF to change the notion when the Black Stars won the continent’s football tournament for the fourth time in 1982 and played goalless with the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon in Libya. Then after the Cameroon team that qualified to Spain 1982 World Cup finished honorably with three drawn games against Poland, Peru and the eventual Champions, Italy, the whole system changed.

It was only normal that the inclusion of many professionals in the national squad may have influenced the selection, and the appointment of a national coach who should handle the national teams for various assignments needed the experience of expatriates.

And, looking at the invitation of players who have to join the national team coming from various European countries and elsewhere, soccer administrators decided to fall in love with expatriate coaches to handle the national team.

So many factors are put into consideration, such as facility of training grounds for the national team abroad, the release of professional players with the interpretation of FIFA Regulations and possibility of arguments put across by the Football Association in collaboration with the contracted coach.

Foreign coaches seem to be a bit ahead of their local counterparts as the game of football has a large coverage abroad than in Africa; they are easily abreast with new Rules and Regulations of the game of football including some logistics during camping such as diet, physiotherapy, condition for release, transfer of players and the time for a professional player to return to the mother club.

It is also normal that foreign coaches earn bigger remuneration due to the environment they are coming from and the condition of employment they used to work within, because most are also very sincere to our FA when it comes to resources given to them to monitor players abroad.

Every foreign coach is very particular about time in every exercise with the national team, and above all they are disciplined and do not allow their sentiments to overshadow their professional responsibilities.

The first thing for Africans to do, if we want a local coach to be in charge, is to make sure that he is well -trained, of course somewhere abroad for some years; he is disciplined enough while the country put up decent infrastructures to facilitate his job as he will be given a considerable salary to unable him do his work properly without interference, be he a former footballer or not.

The idea of the past administration of Osagyefo Dr. Nkrumah who sent a number of coaches and soccer administrators abroad to learn about the game of football became history because we are in a new era where national teams have a lot of well- paid professionals who are always invited to come and play for the nation.

The fact remains that, it is a tall order today to appoint local coaches to handle the Black Stars because of their pedigree we need more time for them, if we want to talk about the above - mentioned factors, unless they are well -trained and scrutinized by football governing body for the job the next five years.

A local coach will handle Brazil, France and other national teams abroad because of their environment. The development of football in those countries in terms of administration and coaching is not the same as we have in Africa, especially in Ghana where there are no facilities and high modern rated resource persons to initiate coaching courses.

Reaching the World Cup quarter-final stage was a combination of foreign-based players, who are under great coaching abroad in collaboration with a foreign coach who has also seen it all in his country, Serbia.

Africa still needs foreign coaches until we work hard to train those we feel are disciplined enough and have reached a level to do the job without favoritism whilst we also need a disciplined FA that will not interfere in their responsibilities.