Former Deputy Youth and Sports Minister, Joseph Yamin has said that challenges with the national teams go beyond player influence as claimed by Wilfred Osei Kwaku Palmer.
Palmer, a former management member of the Black Stars recently accused top GFA officials of playing part in the selection of players to the various national teams.
But Yamin in an interview with Koforidua based Bryt FM rejected Palmer’s claims as he strongly believes that player influence is not a problem for national teams.
“When you look at player influence, I think that is not the problem. In Ghana, we have sixteen regions and in all these regions we play football. So if you are looking at one player per region it means that some region will not have their players selected into the national team”
“So looking at the picture I have given, there will be some sort of favoritism in the selection of players. Even if we have ten strikers and we are selecting one, of course, there will be favoritism”
“Even coaches that select players into the national teams do it base on favorite because you cannot tell me Fatau Dauda was a better goalkeeper than Adam Kwarasay during the 2014 World cup. Everybody knew Kwarasay was our best goalie but how come Fatau marked the post for us”
“Again, I don’t know why Felix Annan is always on the bench for the Black Stars during tournaments. If I were to be the coach of the Black Stars, I will put him ahead of Richard Ofori. However, since there are three goalkeepers the coach will end up choosing on favorite”
“I have always said that the issue of favoritism does not have a problem with the national team. I didn’t influence any player on the coach during my time as the deputy sports minister. I don’t see why I should do that, I always leave the coaches to do their own thing. But I believe is that the player being influenced to the national team must always prove a point so he doesn’t become a liability”
He adds that he thinks player influence is real but is of the view that has not affected the national teams in any way.
He has therefore charged the leadership of the Ghana FA to find out the main problem affecting the national teams.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Sylvester Ntim
