The 2022 Fédération internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup hosted by Qatar, has come and gone with Argentina beaten France to life the coveted trophy for the first time in36 years.
The football Mundial, has been described by many football fans around the world as one of the best-ever World Cup finals.
Despite the initial controversies which was overshadowed by politics, instead of football, but it was stepped aside as Qatar, the host nation, delivered a masterclass of football, drama, suspense, upsets, and indeed a World Cup to remember.
It is worthy to note that, FIFA has disclosed that it earned record revenue of $7.5 billion in the four years of commercial deals tied to the 2022 World Cup , this according to the football governing body is $1 billion more than income from the previous commercial cycle linked to the one hosted by Russia in 2018.
For the first time in the history of the World Cup, an African team, Morrocco got to the semi final and finished fourth.
They defeated Belgium, the second-ranked team in the World, Spain, and Portugal en route to the semi-finals. They also put up a spirited performance in the semi-finals against the 2018 champions, France. Suffice it to say, Morrocco won the hearts of many football lovers across the World.
Also African champions, Senegal made it to the second round before being knocked out by England.
We make haste to add that all the African teams that participated in the World Cup were coached by local coaches and there are lessons to be learned from this.
Ghanaians both home and abroad, were sad that, the senior national team, the Black Stars failed to make it past the group stage.
The Black Stars, lost their first game to Portugal by 3 goals to 2, they went on to beat South Korea by the same number of goals as Portugal and then lost their final game against Uruguay by two goals to nil.
Ghana, has among the best football talents in Africa, but that has not translated to success on the football pitch for some years now no thanks to poor management and bad leadership at the football federation.
This is why as a newspaper, we agree with the Youth and Sports Minister, Mustapha Yusif, when he said Ghana needs a good technical team to perform.
According to the minister, “We have a very young team. What happened in Qatar shows that we have a bright future and if we keep the team together and get a good technical team to man them, we will create surprises in the world,” he said as reported by Kumasi-based Pure FM.
“We have talents from 20, 21, and 22 years and if you look at what Kudus Mohammed exhibited, if we are able to play together for a very long time, we will have a good future,” he added.
As a newspaper, we are not surprised by the revelation of the minister, because for some time now, that has been the bane of the development of sports, not only football in this country.
We recall after the sacking of C.K Akunor, it came to light that, he was owed seven months’ salary arrears. This, in addition has been the reasons why Ghana, has not been able to attract grade-A quality coaches.
Ghana, has some of the best talents in Africa and if properly harnessed and managed, we have the potential of being the first African team to play in the World Cup finals. This is doable and the time to start making this come true is now.
