‘Ghana football has been designed to fail’ – Nii Lante Vanderpuye

According to former Youth and Sports Minister Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, the setup of Ghanaian football is destined for failure.

Vanderpuye, who held the position from 2015 to 2017, highlights the underwhelming performances of the national teams in consecutive tournaments and the struggle to attract both audience and corporate sponsorship for the domestic league.

Vanderpuye argues that the root of the problem lies in the way Ghana approaches the sport. Unlike top English Premier League clubs, which have structured youth systems with teams at various levels, Ghana tends to assemble players only for tournaments, without a consistent development pathway. He asserts that relying solely on assembling players on short notice hampers the country’s ability to achieve desired results.

Drawing a comparison, Vanderpuye points out the success of England’s Young Lions in the U21 championship, where new talents emerge while previous players progress to higher levels.

He believes that Ghana should prioritize nurturing young players from the U17 level, as they will be the ones representing the country in the future.

In summary, Vanderpuye suggests that Ghanaian football needs a fundamental overhaul in its approach to avoid a perpetual cycle of failure.

He emphasizes the importance of establishing a structured and continuous development system to produce talented players who can consistently perform at the national level.

“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 until 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.

“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.”