Why African Football Needs To Change For The Good For A Brighter Future...

By Patrick Owusu.

Africa has got in abundance many talented footballers but there is lack of recognition of our various leagues and tournaments.  This is because of the habitual movement of our players to Europe and other parts of the world, the moment they make a name for themselves.

African players move abroad because of money and fame. We can’t even keep our star players in our own country in other for them to play in our leagues, so that we will develop and gain recognition like other leagues in Europe [La liga, EPL, Ligue 1, Serie A, and etc].  The players move to Europe because they are not paid well in Africa .There is also no good insurance packages for our footballers.

Another major problem is lack of advertisement and also low level of patronage by us the Africans. We don’t invest and patronize our league. Africans spend too much time watching European and other parts of the world’s leagues. Most Africans even support teams in Europe whereby they don’t support any team in Africa.

Even shops that sell jerseys in Africa, patronise the selling of foreign jerseys more than our local teams jerseys. And also most of our journalists take much time and joy in talking and debating of foreign Football news on the radio and television sets. They, therefore, also give the masses the chance to phone in on live Football programs to give their ideas about foreign issues mostly than local issues. This means that publicity of our game is very low.

Also, we lack the facilities that will help make the game interesting and a joy to watch. Many young and upcoming footballers even lack sports wears to help them play football. Our football fields are not good enough to play the game of football on and this really doesn’t help us to really enjoy the game very well. A farmer can’t weed without using a good cutlass and the same applies to football, whereby we can’t play the game by not using good and recommended facilities.

Our players don’t wear quality team jerseys during matches. Also during training sections, our players don’t wear uniformed bibs or jerseys to show the particular team they are training for. Most of our coaches also don’t have a specific training routine program to follow daily.

Management of African football is very poor. Bribery and corruption is killing our game. The right people are also not given the mandate to manage our Football because of favoritism and nepotism. This all because of our selfish interests. Most of our football administrators are not qualified and are corrupted. Some of our coaches are still used to playing the old way of football rather than the new way of football, which is all about tactics.

Most of the teams in Africa don’t have good medical personnel because they can’t finance them.  The teams also don’t have lucrative sponsorship deals to help the administrators to finance their teams very well. Most of the players too are tactically indiscipline and this has hindered the beauty of our game. The rules and regulations of football in Africa are weak and need to be strengthened to make the game very disciplined and a joy to watch.

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Remember The Name: Emmanuel Boateng

By Patrick Owusu.

From Batama to California.

Emmanuel Boateng is a young talented and tactically disciplined footballer. Emmanuel resided at Bantama, a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti region during his days in Ghana. He started his football career at Ebony FC, which is a colts team in Kumasi. Emmanuel Boateng’s story starts thousands of miles away on the dusty fields in Ghana, but where it may end is what makes his tale so fascinating.

Boateng went to the United States in 2009 as part of the Right to Dream Academy, which helps athletes in Ghana explore opportunities [both in education and sports] all around the globe.

The brilliant midfielder’s first stop in the States was Cate School, a small, private boarding school in the foothills of Santa Barbara, California. Boateng’s high school career hit a high point during his junior year with the 2011-12 Gatorade National Boys Soccer High School Player of the Year award .“It has been great,” Boateng told TopDrawerSoccer.com. “To be part of something that the school can look back on and be proud of is special.”

The 18-year-old is the first athlete from Cate (which Boateng became the first American) to win the Gatorade award in the school’s 102-year history, to earn MVP honors in the 30-year history of the Milk Cup when he led the South Coast Strikers to fourth place in the 2011 Premier Section at the tournament in Northern Ireland. Boateng is only the underclassman to the Gatorade Player of the Year award in its 27-year history. Boateng joins Wayne Rooney, David Beckham and Giovanni Dos Santos as the youngest athletes to have won the Milk Cup MVP honors.

The Ghanaian has brought other honors unto the school as well including a pair of California High School Division VII titles during his three years on campus, but his junior year will be his final in high school as he decided earlier this year to enroll at UC Santa Barbara in 2012, having maintained a 3.75 GPA at high school.

“It was a tough choice,” Boateng said. “I wrestled with it a lot, but at the end of the day I thought it was the best choice for me.” For Boateng, the choice was not simply about returning to Cate for his senior season or enrolling early at UCSB, there were other professional clubs also in the mix.

Manchester City has been closely monitoring the star for the past few years after inviting him on trial in 2010 and was poised to sign him this summer .“I considered it,” Boateng said about joining the English Premier League Champions. “Thinking about leaving [to join City] in mid-July . . . but I think I made the right choice right now to wait and get the collegiate experience."

 Boateng’s role model is Steve Gerard of Liverpool. Boateng enjoys playing central midfield and is also a utility player. He is eligible to play for either Ghana or USA national team. He is one player that I really admire and won’t be surprised to see him rise to be the best in Africa and subsequently in the world in future.

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Should African football associations only hire nationals?

by Patrick Owusu Ansah

This will not be happening in the foreseeable future because the fans, but the football associations and the politicians want immediate results. They reckon that experienced coaches who can deliver instant results are not African! Long-term planning of upgrading local coaches' education and investing of trust in a pool of local coaches appear to be unAfrican qualities. Local coaches are not even allowed the latitude of an occassional blip in form of the team.

Part of the reason why African coaches have not succeeded at the World Cups is because they are handed long and secure tenure in their positions to enable them build cohesive sides that can gell in time for tournaments. The African coach is not trusted. He is viewed as incompetent and incapable. Yet, African coaches have won junior World Cups before.

An African coach has guided a nation to an Olympic football title before. Cameroon's Jean Paul Akono and not Pierre Lechantre was the architect of the Indomitable Lions' triumph at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Ghana's Charles Gyamfi and Egypt's Hassan Shehata have each won the Africa Cup of Nations three times making them the most successful African coaches at the Africa Cup. Ghana’s Sellas Tetteh has also won the U 20 World cup before.    
         
However, this pedigree of African coaches appears not to be enough in the eyes of Africa's football federations. So, the continent will continue to pay an expensive price at serious football tournaments through their highly-paid expatriate coaches who are not only disconnected from their players, but they have little connection with the style and traditions of African football.

 It is hard time, African football Associations should start hiring nationals as coaches .We must believe in nationals, because they also know the techniques and tacticality of the game.

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