‘We need to get basics right’ – Vincent Sowah Odotei on Ghana Football

Former Hearts of Oak CEO and current Interim Management Committee (IMC) Lead Administrator of Accra Hearts of Oak, Vincent Sowah Odotei, has expressed deep concern about the state of football in Ghana, blaming decades of poor leadership for its decline.

Ghana’s national teams and domestic leagues have struggled to make a significant impact in competitions on the continental and global stages, raising questions about the state of the game among dissatisfied football fans.

According to Odotei, the decline in Ghana football is largely the result of years of poor administration and a failure to put the necessary structures in place to support its development.

“The level of deterioration is so high. It’s been decades of bad leadership. We were not able to attract good people to the administration.

“We don’t have the facilities, we don’t have tactical and physical infrastructure. We don’t have well-structured teams that are driven by a strategy, who are looking at the long term. We are where we are because of decades of bad leadership,” he said in an interview with JoySports.

Odotei also stressed the need for Ghana to address the fundamentals of the game, insisting that proper organisation and long-term planning are essential if the country hopes to compete with the leading football nations in North, East and Southern Africa.

“To turn around a system where we will be able to compete with the North Africans and East Africans and the Southern African countries, we will need the transformation of hygienic transformation to deliver a strategic transformation.

“We need to get the basics right. The basics that will make us competitive, the basics about regulation, order, proper organisation, proper scheduling. Make sure we inject [improve] the way we train our local coaches.”