Ghana, known to be the power house of African football, and nicknamed “African Brazilians” across the world of football, have lost the prowess that used to be her weapon, and this has contributed to the country’s inability to win any competitive trophy at the senior national team level, former Super Eagles AFCON winner has explained.
In an exclusive interview with ghanasportspage.com, Edema Fuludu, member of Nigeria’s 1994 Africa Cup of Nations winning squad, was required to opine on why Ghana has been a pale shadow of themselves, losing the fear factor in football as the senior level on the continent. Ghana made her debut at the AFCON in 1963 and won the trophy, and also went ahead to defend the trophy in the next edition of the competition in 1965. The country’s exploits in football on the continent was one to admire. They won their third AFCON title in 1978, then in 1982 in Libya, all at the time when the number of teams competing in the competition were 8.
Ghana lost the AFCON trophy narrowly in 1992 staged in Senegal, the first time the participating teams had been extended to 12, after losing a marathon penalty shootouts to Ivory Coast 10-11, when the fellow West African country lifted their first continental silverware. Ghana has since struggled to rise to the occasion, having been to the finals only on two occasions since 1992 after 14 appearances, losing both to Egypt and Ivory Coast respectively. Ghana’s performance has taking a retrogressive curve, finishing fourth in 2017, Round of 16 in 2019 and exiting at the group stage in 2021 in Cameroon.
Asked whether the cause of Ghana’s failures over the years is due to lack of great football talents, great indigenous coaches or otherwise, Edema Fuludu declined to any, but attributes the situation to poor football administration and lack of infrastructure.
“Ghana the perennial rivals of Nigeria when it comes to football has become a shadow of her own prowess”, Edema declared, speaking exclusively to ghanasportspage.com. “Ghana was the power house in Africa, African football especially West Africa. Poor administration of football involving diversion instead of investing has almost brought the country’s football to her knees”, he noted.
According to Edema, 51, Ghana enjoys perpetual flow of football talents, same as coaches, but lack of infrastructural development has contributed immensely to the falling state of football in Ghana.
“Ghana like Nigeria does not lack talents and does not lack quality coaches. What she lacks is infrastructure and quality administration. The league [Ghana Premier League] must be run transparently and properly structured to attract sponsorship, which will gradually mold the national team. It is not rocket science”, he pointed out.
Going forward, Edema Fuludu provided what he thinks will be good for the country’s football administrators to revisit.
“A country’s prowess in football must come from a strong domestic league and infrastructural development. Ghana must go and restructure again so that they can begin to develop their football. I’m sure that Ghana has class A class B licenced coaches, and so they should put them into use. We need to make sure the administrators are people were former footballers with knowledge that know where it is getting low, so that they can grow it”, he advised.
