Former minister for sport, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye believes the structure of football in Ghana is a breeding house for failure.
Ghana’s tournament results have in the last four years, been characterised by back-to-back poor results across all levels, for both men and women.
Vanderpuye, who was minister for sport between 2015 and 2017, reckons the seeds of today’s failure were sown right from the start.
“All the [English] Premier [League] clubs have junior levels – U21, U19 – playing in a league. So the system is built in a way there will always be an infusion of new, younger faces into the national sphere.
“What do we see here? We wait when we have a tournament; we invite somebody here, we call somebody from here, put them together and play. We can never achieve results when we continue to do that.
“It’s like we plan to fail,” Vanderpuye explained to Joy Sports.
He also highlights England’s Young Lions at the U21 championship, which has witnessed a change of guard, with new talents like Levi Colwill and Noni Madueke.
“They used to have people like Calvert-Lewin, Foden and Greenwood – all these people were part of the team, but they’ve moved on.
“In the next four years, those playing in the U17 tournament will be there.”