Ghana Black Stars at the World Cup The Good, The Bad and The Questions

The Black Stars Of Ghana at Royal Bafokeng Stadium on June 26, 2010 Rustenburg,in S Africa FIFA World Cup

The Good. The Black Stars’ advance to the quarter finals of the World Cup captured the hearts of a continent and of friends around the world and in the process became a symbol of African hope and unity that transcended sports. South Africans adopted the Black Stars as BaGhana BaGhana after their national team, Bafana Bafana, was eliminated and some there wondered if the spirit of soccer might overcome the smouldering tensions that have fueled attacks on African migrants in that country for years. Kwesi Nyantakyi, president of the Ghana Football Association, said the team’s success could “heal and unite” the African continent. “Even in troubled places like Somalia, people are cheering for us…That’s the power of football. People in Darfur and Somalia who should be fighting are glued to their televisions. For 90 minutes, there is no war.” (The Globe and Mail, July 1, 2010.)
The Bad. Euphoria crashed with the Black Stars loss to Uruguay, a defeat made all the more agonizing by the closeness of the play and by the kinds of questionable calls by the officials that led to world-wide demands that FIFA employ modern technology to bring greater fairness to the beautiful game.
The Questions. First, will the spirit of hope survive the loss of a football match? Will the shared heartache of a mere game work to strengthen African unity? We will have to wait for the answer while some of us work to ensure that the answer is, Yes!”
Second question. What has happened to youth soccer in Ghana since I left in 1968 to propel the national team onto the world Stage? In my time kids played soccer with enthusiasm and joy on makeshift fields and on school teams. There must have been a national soccer program because I saw The Black Stars play Nigeria at Black Star Stadium in 1968 but there were few signs of a system of children’s leagues guided by organized coaching in Northern Ghana where I lived. A bit of Internet research reveals that much has changed. Now youth coaches in Tamale and throughout the north bring their stars to try-outs held by elite soccer academies who pay the parents of successful candidates before taking them four hundred miles or more to the south where they will live and train for several years. The children do not see their parents during this time. The goal is to train players for elite foreign leagues where the financial return will be greatest for the athletes, their families and the academy. Hungry for a Better Life, a feature on the ESPN site, frames this as a once in a lifetime chance for young boys from Northern Ghana to escape grinding poverty. www.elllo.org presents the situation as verging on child slavery. “…some of them (young athletes) even end up not actually meeting their potential, and end up doing some other stuff, end up in crime, end up doing some other stuff, and there’s a lot of corruption in that. People actually go, there are families in Ghana which actually pay people, pay teams, just to sell their young kids to these foreign scouts. So it’s really unfortunate. It’s really unfortunate.”
Third Question. Has life improved for children of Northern Ghana? I don’t think so.
jacktoronto@telus.net