E.T. Mensah bemoans youth football neglect in Ghana

pulse-ghana admin 12:35 - 03 February 2017

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E.T. Mensah recounts some of the initiatives he took for youth football in Ghana when he was the Minister for Youth and Sports and expresses sadness on how they are not taken seriously.

Former Minster of Youth and Sports, E.T Mensah, has said the national team will not make a headway if youth football is neglected.

His comment comes on the back of the failure of the senior national team, the Black Stars, to reach the finals of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon after suffering a 0-2 defeat to Cameroon on Thursday February 2.

According to Ghana’s longest-serving Sports Minister, unless structures are put in place to promote youth football like he did during his tenure, the national team will continue to suffer.

Speaking on ClassFM on Friday February 3, he narrated how he put structures in place when he served as Minister of Youth and Sports from 1993 to 2001.

"Some people call me the father of modern football because when I took over, [the FA] was Ghana Amateur Football Association. Players were not on the payroll, players were not given the right treatment, the structures were weak and we had to go through the processes that are first deal with the structures...

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He recounted saying, "when I entered the Ministry people would come and tell you ‘this one is NPP, this one is this’, and at meetings I tell them:

"With us in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, our focus is clearly defined. We know what our goal is and our party is youth and sports, and so I treated everybody with even-handedness, consulted widely, brought on board former players like the Aggrey Fynns when he was alive, the CK Gyamfis. I put in place structures where they were given roles to play and like Osei Kufuor said, ‘When you forget about your youth, forget it.”

Mr. Mensah further added that the Government then built 25 self-contained rooms in Winneba and decided on having a national youth team.

“We brought the likes of Afranie, Osam Duodu, and co and got them together. He explained on how the Ministry decided they were going to “train our former Black Stars players as coaches.”

He advised the country focus on the youth football first saying:“

We took the youth seriously; if you don’t take the youth seriously, forget it. If you don’t think about your raw materials, do you want to have finished products?”