“CHAN players not the best in Ghana”
Benjamin Kouffie, a former Chairman of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has dismissed reports that the local Black Stars squad at the 2011 African Nations Championship (CHAN) are the best materials available on the local scene.
The Stars were sorry bunch at the tournament as they bowed out at the group phase after losses to South Africa, Zimbabwe and Niger, and Kouffie says the players are no where near the best in the country’s Premier League.
“They cannot claim to be the best in Ghana neither do I think that they are. I cannot tell exactly what went wrong with the team but certainly these are not the best in Ghana,” he told GNA Sports in Khartoum on Saturday.
Kouffie, a member of the Technical Study Group (TSG) for the tournament, which is designed exclusively for local-based players, expressed surprise with the performance of the team, considered as the worst by a Ghanaian national team in recent times.
“I watched two games and I was not impressed with their output. They were not playing like Ghanaians. We have a brand of football; entertaining, aggression and imagination but they never exhibited any of such.”
The veteran football administrator also rubbished complaints of the supposed ‘bad pitches’ by the Ghanaian team as their bane, citing that South Africa who are blessed with better pitches back home adjusted to the situation at hand.
“When you realize this is the surface on which you will be playing, then you have no excuse. South Africa play on better pitches at home but were able to excel, and Niger too. May be in Ghana, we are used to better pitches than the others.”
Kouffie said that the team might have suffered from the effect of inadequate preparations but noted that the disastrous outing should, however, not serve as the sole yardstick to measure the competence of coach Herbert Addo and local coaches in general.
“I do not think this tourney should be used to judge the coach, because he has a proven track record. It won’t be right to say he is a local coach that is why the team performed that badly.”
The 78-year old former Black Stars administrator backed his believe in local coaches with a familiar terminology in coaching.
“In coaching, the coach may not be responsible for the result of his team, but he is responsible for the performance of his team and he is judged by the results of the team.”
Meanwhile the former GFA Chairman has stuck his neck out for the Tunisian team to go farthest in the competition.
Source: GNA