KWESI APPIAH, the former coach of Ghana’s Black Stars who led his country to the 2014 World Cup finals, spoke on behalf of scores of his black African counterparts when he dropped a bombshell this week.
The 59-year-old Ghanaian said football leaders on the continent have been giving black African football coaches, who choose to serve their countries as national team gaffers, a raw deal for a long time.
Kwesi was in charge of the Black Stars at the last AFCON finals in Egypt but, in January, his contract was not renewed by his country’s football leaders.
He was replaced by another former Ghanaian international, Charles “CK’’ Akonnor.
Five months after he left his job, Appiah is still waiting for his former employers to pay him about US$185 000, which they owe him in unpaid salaries and bonuses.
“I was owed money since August 2019,” Appiah told BBC Sport Africa this week. “Would they owe a white coach for 11 months?
“(My predecessor) Avram Grant was not owed more than a month when his contract ended. It’s not right and should not be encouraged irrespective of whether (the coach is) local or foreign.
“I gave the GFA a three-month deadline (earlier this year), but neither the GFA nor the Sports ministry have met with me.’’
Kwesi was one of just two African coaches in charge of the continent’s representatives, at the 2014 World Cup finals, the other one being the late Nigerian gaffer, Stephen Keshi.
Algeria were under Bosnian coach, Vahid Halilhodzic, Cameroon were under the guidance of German coach Volker Finke while Cote dÍvoire were led by Frenchman, Sabri Lamouchi.
However, for all the huge investment into the European coaches, the only African representatives, to make it beyond the group stages in Brazil, were the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
The West African country, which decided to go with their local coach Keshi, who had led them to success at the 2013 AFCON finals in South Africa, emerged as the best performing of the continent’s representatives in Brazil.
Four years later, in Russia last year, African teams endured a miserable campaign as they all crashed out of the tournament in the group stages, despite investing heavily into coaches like Hector Cuper of Mexico and Dutchman Clarence Seedorf.
While the African football leaders have, over the years been desperate to invest in national team coaches from Europe and South America, the rewards do not tally with the millions of dollars which have been poured into these associations.
We haven’t seen any African team reach the semi-finals of the World Cup, despite the continent having some of the world’s best players, to provide any justification to the huge investment, which we have seen being poured into the recruitment of these coaches from Europe and South America.
At the last AFCON finals, there were 13 coaches from either South America or Europe compared to 11 coaches from Africa.
France, alone, provided seven coaches, there was a Mexican, a Belgian, a German, an Englishman, a Serbian and a Dutchman.
But, when it came to the final, two countries, which had invested in the expertise of their local coaches, Algeria (Djamel Belmadi) and Senegal (Aliou Cisse), were the ones who were left standing to contest the final, which the Desert Foxes won 1-0.
At Euro 2016, all the teams were under European coaches with the majority of them, except just a handful, going with their local coaches.
Only Switzerland, who were guided by Bosnian gaffer, Vladimir Petkovic, Austria, who were under the guidance of Swiss coach Mercel Koller and Hungary, who chose German gaffer Bernd Storck, chose to go with coaches who were not from their countries.
While there is nothing wrong in hiring foreign expertise, especially in sport, there is everything wrong when the red carpet is rolled for such expatriates while the locals, who probably could have done a better job and at a cheaper cost, are given a raw deal.
This is particularly rife in Africa where, it appears, football leaders are always in a rush to employ coaches from Europe and South America, and pamper them with all the luxuries one can think of, to take charge of the national teams.
As highlighted by Appiah, on the occasions the local coaches are employed, hostile conditions are created, including the non-payment of salaries, as if the football leaders would be on a mission to try and ensure they should fail.
This is a controversial issue in this country where local coaches like Sunday Chidzambwa, Norman Mapeza, Callisto Pasuwa and Charles Mhlauri, who guided the Warriors to the AFCON finals, found themselves being frustrated by a system which did not care for their welfare.
The image of Pasuwa, with that two-in-one blanket on his way to board a bus for the road trip from Harare to Blantyre for an AFCON qualifier against Malawi, has always been used to illustrate the tough conditions which the local coaches have been forced to work under, on the occasions they choose to serve their country, by our football leaders.
And, to compound their woes, virtually all of them found themselves confronted by the challenges which Appiah is dealing with right now, the non-payment of their salaries.
That only Zimbabwean coaches have guided the Warriors to the AFCON finals, in our history, hasn’t helped their cause and, instead, it is the European and South American coaches who have come here, and failed to deliver, who have been pampered with thousands of dollars.
Belgian coach, Tom Saintfiet, took U$180 000 for just coaching the Warriors for one day, while Brazilian gaffer, Valinhos, pocketed more than US$100 000 for the doomed 2010 AFCON qualifiers.
– HERALD