Former Asante Kotoko and Tema Youth coach Isaac Opeele Boateng has descended heavily on the Management Committee of the Black Stars for the early exit of the senior national football team from the Cup of Nations in Egypt, describing it as a “failed management” after accusing them of shirking responsibilities by using head coach Kwasi Appiah as sacrificial lamb to cover for their grave failure.
In March this year, the Normalisation Committee of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) in charge of Ghana’s football government, appointed Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) CEO Dr. K.K. Sarpong as Chairman of a five-member management committee for the Black Stars. The former Executive Board Chairman of Kumasi Asante Kotoko is deputized by the Hon. Deputy minister of Youth and Sports, Perry Okudzeto, supported by former Black Stars player Ibrahim Sunday, Madam Abena Osei Asare and Mr. Francis Asenso-Boakye as members.
The names above clearly indicate that the Black Stars Management Committee is made of politicians with no or little knowledge or experience about football administration and the vociferous football tactician Opeele believe that the management has woefully failed including the coach Kwasi Appiah and so the blame should be evenly distributed instead of singling out Kwasi Appiah as a scape goat.
“Ghanaians have put all the blame on Kwasi Appiah because it is soft from his aspect, I’m tempted to believe Ghanaians hate anybody called Kwasi, they destroyed [Kwasi] Nyantakyi with money, now after that they can’t tell the truth that Ghana has gone to waste money [in Egypt] with an undisclosed budget and now they’ve intentionally blamed it all on Kwasi Appiah because that is the easy way, meanwhile it’s a failed management. The thing has failed, reports have said that the players were with women at the camp and all these are signs of failure, people didn’t do the thing well”, Opeele fumed.
Opeele further noted that the structure of the Black Stars Management Committee is made of people who are not football people drawn from ministries, finance sectors and it’s about time the truth is told to the face of the right people.
“If you look at the management structure, some are from finance, some are from ministry, some from here and there, they are not football people, if the thing is going wrong let’s stop the hatred and say how the thing is going, for me I’m happy I saw it earlier and started saying when some people were saying they won’t take me to Egypt, but what is wrong if you don’t go to Egypt? Let us say the truth that the way theses people (NC) are administering didn’t go well”, Opeele argued in a heated tone interview with Focal Sports.
