The President of World Rugby’s African Association and former Kumasi Asante Kotoko Board Chairman, Herbert Mensah, says Ghana is no longer a great sporting nation.
He said this in an interview in the wake of Ghana’s failure to qualify for the 2025 AFCON after going winless in the qualifiers.
Failure to qualify to next year’s AFCON in Morocco marks the first time in 20 years that Ghana won’t compete in the continental championship.
Coupled with failures in other competitions like the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, the veteran sports administrator believes Ghana is no longer a great sporting nation.
“We have to look inwardly at ourselves. A country like Ghana is no longer a great sporting nation. You go to the Olympics, we wasted taxpayers’ money, you go to Commonwealth games, and we wasted taxpayers’ money. You go to the Nations Cup (AFCON)
and the amount of money that is spent, singularly on football, the political sport, is not acceptable.”
Mr Mensah slammed the role of football administrators in the poor performance of the Black Stars in recent years.
“You would have noticed it even with Niger and Sudan; fans don’t see stars in the national teams because they are failing to make it into the top clubs in the top leagues across the world.”
“There is the English Premier League, Bundesliga or La Liga. If our players are able to cement places in these leagues, they will become stars and extend their performance to the national teams. The national teams are the level where the fans cheer them on.”
“So what is it about our administrators that put a system together and when they fail, they still have the guts to come and make excuses that nobody in their right mind would accept.” –Citinewsroom.com
