The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has recomposed the Black Stars management committee. The new committee is led by Executive Committee member, Dr. Randy Abbey. Other members are ex-Black Stars captain, Stephen Appiah; Medeama President, Moses Armah; Smartex President, Richard Nsenkyire and Greater Accra Regional Football Association Chair, Samuel Aboabire.
But of what use is this committee? Three times in five years the GFA has changed membership of the committee. In that period the Black Stars have only embarrassed Ghanaians with early AFCON exits and for the next AFCON, they did not even qualify. Again, in the recent past members of the Black Stars management committee have disgracefully lined their pockets with hundreds of thousands of dollars in the name of honorariums while the team underperformed the Qatar 2022 World Cup for instance.
The GFA does not accept that the management committee concept of running our national teams is needless. A national teams office with a couple of people is ideal because what does the committee do that cannot be done by one office for all our national teams? According to the GFA, the committee would be responsible for overseeing the administrative and logistical aspects of the team.
They would supervise the effective management and set the strategic plan and activities of the team; serve as a link between the technical team and the FA; ensure adequate camping arrangements; provide logistical support and regularly visits the team in camp. They would also, in consultation with the head coach and technical team, prepare and ensure the team's adherence to activity schedules for all matches.
In addition, they would be responsible for following up on the release of funds for team operations from the government; ensure the best travelling plans for members of the team to act in a manner worthy of ambassadors of Ghana and insist on appropriate policies for the effective management and support of the players and officials.
Finally, the committee is to maintain cordial relationship between them, the technical team and the players besides being the interface for the marketing and the GFA’s communications office to ensure effective and efficient delivery of all commitments to sponsors and partners. So, I ask: do we need a committee to do all these? What would change this time? Would the new committee be any different?