When former Sports Minister Isaac Asiamah, in February 2018, handed over a five-bedroom accommodation to erstwhile Black Stars Ghana boss Kwasi Appiah, it was thought that the country had found quite a lasting solution to spending so much on hotel bills or rent for head coaches of the senior national team.
Months before the former Sports Minister handed over the facility, he indicated that the move was going to save the country thousands of dollars in hotel bills. The Ministry was spending $8,000 every month to cater for accommodation for Black Stars coaches.
“We have just acquired a house to accommodate the Black Stars coach. Can you believe that we used to spend $8,000 every month on accommodation for the Black Stars coach?
“Now with this house, we can save that money for other things,” he stated at a Forum for the establishment of the National Sports Fund.
Kwasi Appiah was the first occupant of the facility. But he had to vacate the place after his contract was not renewed in January 2020.
His successor CK Akonnor, per logic, was to occupy the place. But it would not happen.
Not because the former assistant to Appiah rejected the house, but rather a ‘new idea’ by the current administration of the Ghana Football Association who ‘inherited’ the Airport Residential Area house.
The five-bedroom house – acquired through the Ministry of Works and Housing – was renovated at a cost of GH¢300,000. It was said to be going to serve as the official residence for subsequent head coaches of the Ghana senior national team.
But the GFA decided to change the purpose for what, in the wisdom of Government, is the permanent official residence for the Black Stars head coach, into an office space termed ‘Technical Hub.’
After several months of silence on the decision, the GFA finally came clear.
General Secretary Prosper Harrison-Addo, at a forum in Kumasi on April 1st, disclosed: “…That is where the coaches go daily to plan their activities to work.”
“It is an office for all the national team coaches that we have. They go there plan their activities and exchange ideas. So it’s a Technical Hub.”
The GFA Scribe, however, did not touch on the new housing arrangement for then Black Stars boss Akonnor – who also received the sack just about a fortnight ago.
Enter Milo
Now a new head coach for the Black Stars is in.
Good old Serbian Milovan Rajevac has been engaged for a second spell for the next one to a possible two years.
And now Ghana is faced with investing heavily in a “decent” accommodation for the returnee expatriate.
In a brief to the media at the unveiling of Milovan Rajevac Friday, GFA President Kurt E.S Okraku said: “The coach has to be provided with an accommodation.
“And the FA will provide the coach with a decent accommodation so that he will have the peace of mind. He will not live in a hotel.”
In wonderland
I beg to ask:
Will the GFA be going back to the government with new accommodation cost demands?
Will the football governing body bear the cost itself?
Or probably restore the five-bedroom house to the original purpose for which it was renovated and released by government?
Can’t the offices of the brilliant ‘GFA Technical Hub’ idea be situated at its Technical Centre – the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence in Prampram or even the FA headquarters?