Former Youth and Sports Minister, Nii Lante Vanderpuye has taken a swipe at the Ghana Football Association (GFA) on how the various national teams have been poorly managed.
In the last 24 months, the various national team have failed to perform in major tournaments.
Some failed to qualify for major competitions or faced embarrassing early exits when they do qualify.
The Black Stars suffered back-to-back group stage exits at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The Black Galaxies under Annor Walker suffered a similar fate at the 2023 CHAN, with the Black Meteors failing to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games after their group stage exit at the U-23 AFCON with Ibrahim Tanko in charge as the head coach.
The U-17 team, the Black Starlets, hosted and failed to qualify for the U-17 AFCON, while the U-20 team, which entered the qualifying series as defending champions, failed to qualify for the U-20 AFCON.
However, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, says the GFA’s lazy approach to player development is the reason for the continuous poor showings of the national teams.
“We continue to live on past glories and we are suffering,” the Member of Parliament of Odododiodio Constituency told Citi TV.
“We are doing the same thing, the cow-dung management style. We wait, and when there’s a tournament or qualifying series coming up, then we assemble players and play. Possibly, sometimes we qualify and say ‘Oh we are doing good’.
“It doesn’t work like that. Look at the 2006 World Cup team. Those players were nurtured and developed from U-17, U-20, Meteors, all the way to the Black Stars,” he added.
The Black Stars must draw or win against the Central African Republic (CAR) in the final game of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers in September.
