There is a dangerous lie killing Ghanaian football. And it is told by the very men who sit in local offices and chop local money.
They say: Local is not good enough.
Local players are not good enough. Local coach is not good enough. Local league not good enough.
But they never say: Local President is not good enough. Local Sports Minister not good enough. Local GFA President not good enough. Local Journalist not good enough. Local Club Owner not good enough.
That is the hypocrisy. You cannot be local in benefits and foreign in belief.
This week, I sat with a man who represents everything we claim to disrespect. Nana Kofi Boateng, President of Nsuopun Fidelity Football Club. He is not Kotoko. He is not Hearts. He has no big sponsor. He has no TV money. Every month, he spends GH¢15,000 to GH¢40,000 on salaries, GH¢10,000 on feeding, GH¢5,000 to GH¢15,000 just to bus his boys for one away game in the Division One League.
In one season, he spends between GH¢300,000 and GH¢600,000 from his own pocket to keep Ghana football alive.
And what does Ghana football tell him? “Your best player is not good enough for Black Stars.”
That is the betrayal.
The World-Class Lie
Those who sit at the top of our football keep telling us we need a world-class coach. A world-class foreign-based squad.
I ask: What is world-class about this?
We spent GH¢18 million on the Black Stars, according to the Ministry of Sports. With that money, we failed to qualify for AFCON 2025 for the first time in 20 years. Our FIFA ranking collapsed from 59 to 77. And in October 2026, we flew 23 foreign-based players business class from 12 different countries, paid them in dollars, and lost 2-0 to Ivory Coast and 4-2 to Gambia to sit at the bottom of Group C.
Even the Sports Minister, Kofi Adams, had to ask on Max TV on October 4: “What did the 1m build?”
If this is world-class, then we don’t want world-class. We want Ghana-class.
The Ivory Coast team that beat us 2-0 paraded 5 players from ASEC Mimosas. The Gambian team that beat us 4-2 had 7 home-based players. Their entire Division One league budget is less than what we spent on our charter flight to lose.
So who is truly not good enough? The local boy who scores every Sunday at the Accra Sports Stadium, or the foreign benchwarmer who does not play for his club in Europe?
The World is Running To Local, Ghana is Running From Local
While our EXCO members say local is not good enough, the rest of Africa has proven them wrong.
Senegal trusted local. Aliou Cisse, a local player and local coach, won AFCON 2021.
Morocco trusted local. Walid Regragui, who coached Wydad Casablanca, took Morocco to a World Cup semi-final in 2022 with 14 of his 26 players from local academies. The first African country ever.
Ivory Coast trusted local. Emerse Fae, a local assistant who was considered not good enough, was recalled after they sacked a foreign coach and won AFCON 2023.
Even our own history shames us. The Black Starlets that won the World Cup in 1991 and 1995 were 100% local. Asante Kotoko that won Africa in 1983 was 100% local. The Black Stars that won AFCON in 1963, 1965, 1978, and 1982 were built on a local core.
The world is running to local. Ghana is the only country running from local.
If Local is Bad, Local is Bad Everywhere
This is my challenge to those who believe local is not good enough.
If local is not good enough for the pitch, then local is not good enough for the airwaves. Multimedia should sack me, Enoch Worlanyo, and hire someone from the BBC. The GFA should sack all local media officers and hire Sky Sports. The Ministry should sack the Sports Minister and hire a German.
If local is bad, then local is bad everywhere.
You cannot trust a local man to be President of Ghana to rule 33 million people, trust a local man to be Sports Minister to spend GH¢18 million, trust a local man to be GFA President to manage football, trust Nana Kofi Boateng to use his own money to develop football at Nsuopun, but tell a local boy he is not good enough to kick a ball for Ghana.
You trust local for your salary, but not for our flag. That is selective self-hatred. That is mental slavery, as Bob Marley warned us to emancipate ourselves from.
Kwame Nkrumah said it best: “The black man is capable of managing his own affairs.”
The Final Judgment
To the conscience of those at the GFA Executive Council who think foreign at heart but deliver failure locally, I ask:
You chop local money. You sit in local office. You take local votes. You speak local language to local fans to get power. Then you turn around and tell local players they are not local enough to wear the flag?
The Black Stars is not a visa office for foreign benchwarmers. It is a reward for Ghanaian sweat.
If a local man can be President of Ghana, a local boy can score for Ghana.
If a local man can be Sports Minister, a local man can coach Ghana.
Nana Kofi Boateng told me on Asempa Sports that he has never received a cedi from the government sponsorship that Minister Kofi Adams spoke about on Max TV. He said if they gave him even 1% of the GH¢18 million — just GH¢180,000 — he would transform Nsuopun Fidelity into a factory for Ghana.
That is the voice we ignore while we worship failure.
It is time to fix it.
Trust local. Build local. Win local.
About the Author:
Enoch Worlanyo (Prof. E.K. Wallace) is a sports journalist with Multimedia Group Ghana (Adom FM, Asempa FM, Adom TV), a law student at KAAF University College, and a member of the International Sport Lawyers Association (ISLA).
