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Daily Maverick
2 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Maverick
Building a winning system – Unlocking Ghana's football potential for economic and social growth
In July 2010, as the vuvuzelas roared across Johannesburg, the hopes of a continent rested on the shoulders of Asamoah Gyan. With one penalty kick, Ghana could have become the first African nation to reach a World Cup semifinal. He missed. And while Uruguay celebrated, Africa mourned. But that moment — heartbreaking as it was — signalled something extraordinary: Ghana had arrived. Not just as a participant, but as a contender. Fifteen years later, the deeper question lingers: Why haven't we done more with that global capital? In a world where people earn unconventionally from TikTok to tech start-ups, why isn't Ghana strategically monetising its most beloved, most watched, and arguably most exportable asset: football? The answer lies not merely in sports, but in systems — or rather, their absence. Ghana's football story is world class. We've won the Africa Cup of Nations four times. Our under-17s dominated the world in the 1990s. We've produced stars like Abedi Pelé, Michael Essien, Asamoah Gyan and, more recently, Thomas Partey and Mohammed Kudus. Yet their success stories remain largely individual. We have yet to build a system that translates individual excellence into collective, structural progress. The real problem: no functional football development system Football in Ghana is celebrated, not capitalised. Loved, but not leveraged. It remains entertainment, not enterprise. What we lack is a coordinated development ecosystem that converts footballing talent into structured economic, educational, and national outcomes. This disconnect reveals five interlinked failures: Policy failure There is no politically committed, operational strategy linking football to youth employment, education, or national branding. Countries like Senegal have explored this linkage. The Diambars Institute, founded by football professionals including Patrick Vieira, combines academic training with elite football instruction. How it emerged, who drove it, and how it continues to function are questions we should be interrogating, not just to replicate, but to learn from. Institutional fragmentation Key ministries and agencies, including Youth and Sports, Education, and Finance, as well as the Ghana Football Association, operate in silos. No shared targets, no coordinated budgets. The result? No pipeline. No plan. According to the Auditor-General's 2022 report, the Ministry of Youth and Sports failed to fully disburse the budgeted support to community football initiatives. Meanwhile, the Ghana Football Association has faced recurring transparency issues in its financial reporting, which has undermined trust with both the public and private sector investors. Germany faced a similar breakdown after its Euro 2000 debacle. In response, it mandated that all top-tier clubs create licensed academies tied to education. Backed by €680-million, it built a pipeline that produced Thomas Müller and Manuel Neuer. By 2014, it wasn't just winning trophies, it was reaping the rewards of an adaptive, learning-driven system. Incentive failure There is little reason for local investors or retired players to build domestic football systems when bureaucracy is opaque, and returns are uncertain. The recent MTN FA Cup final — marred by controversy — only reinforces why some hesitate. Yet, models like Côte d'Ivoire's ASEC Mimosas and Académie MimoSifcom show that football can be both a business and a development tool. Its academy has produced global stars (think Yaya Touré, Gervinho and Emmanuel Eboué), reinvested earnings, and sustained a world-class pipeline. We must ask: What allowed that ecosystem to thrive? And who enabled it? Take also, for example, 13-year-old Camden Schaper, a South African prodigy nurtured at SuperSport United's academy in Pretoria. The club's system — scouting talent from Safa tournaments, offering free education, life-skills training, and elite medical and coaching support — echoes the kind of dual-purpose model Ghana needs. Under this structure, Schaper captained the under‑11s on an unbeaten Spanish tour, drew interest from Sporting Lisbon by age eight, and logged five-star performances in Blackburn's youth ranks before Chelsea reportedly bid £700,000 for him. Yet despite this nurturing environment, he and his family relocated to the UK in 2023 to pursue his dreams, raising compelling questions such as: What stops a system from retaining its talent? If Ghana is to build not just pipelines but ecosystems, we need to understand that question deeply. Who decides when talent leaves? What local capacity was exhausted? And how can pilot models surface those insights in real time. Capability and learning deficit Public agencies often lack the necessary tools and planning systems to implement effective reform. Worse, we've failed to reflect on and learn from our history — the 1991 and 1995 youth triumphs, as well as the 2010 World Cup run — all have vanished into nostalgia without substantive reform. Why it matters: football as industrial policy In the UK, sport contributes more than £99-billion to GDP and supports more than one million jobs. In 2021 alone, sports activities added £53.6-billion in direct Gross Value Added. However, the UK's success isn't just about output; it's about the process. Coalition-building, smart regulation, and patient investment created the conditions for monetisation. We need to understand how they got there, not just what they built. Equally, we must study failure. South Africa's 2010 World Cup offers a cautionary tale. Despite adding 0.5% to GDP and creating temporary jobs, the benefits were highly uneven. Infrastructure served already-wealthy areas. Fifa's rigid sponsorship system allegedly sidelined local entrepreneurs. And tourism returns were dismal. Scholars like Mirele de Aragao argue that the real cost was what was not funded: education, healthcare, and employment systems. The question then becomes, what if we saw football not as frivolous, but as strategic? Where might we begin? Learning, not prescribing A few entry points worth exploring: Could a cross-ministry task force define shared Key Performance Indexes for football and youth employment? Could dual-purpose academies become national learning labs? Could diaspora players co-finance infrastructure through matched public funds? Could football-linked tourism (e.g., Abedi Pele museum) become a new export product? Could a national football data system create value for scouts, clubs, and broadcasters? These are not silver bullets. They're prompts — experiments to be piloted, adapted, or abandoned based on what we learn. None promise transformation alone. But together they could offer iterative learning loops that will quite literally change the game for Ghana and Ghanaians. That's where real reform starts. We've played enough exhibition matches Ghana has the talent. The passion. Even the capital. What it lacks is a system. Football is more than a sport in Ghana. It is identity. Unity. Soft power. But soft power without structure is sentiment. If we want jobs, revenue, and national pride, we must build institutions that treat football not as nostalgia, but as a strategic asset. Reform doesn't begin with blueprints; it starts with confronting uncomfortable truths, asking the right questions, and learning our way forward. Football can be a test case for something bigger — a model for how we rebuild broken systems by building better ones, bit by bit, match by match. The missed penalty in 2010 was painful. However, the greater tragedy would be to continue missing the point. It's time to be strategic, intentional and committed to the sport Ghanaians claim to love so dearly. DM
The Guardian
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Nessun Dorma podcast: a 1980s and 1990s football odyssey
The European Championships of 1980 and 2000 were only 20 years apart. They also belonged, both literally and figuratively, to different millennia. Euro 80 was a violent mess of negativity, apathy and hooliganism, Euro 2000 a joyous, sunkissed celebration of 21st-century football. That jarring contrast was the spark for the latest series of Nessun Dorma: an odyssey through the history of football in the 1980s and 1990s. Our aim is to highlight, via a series of subterranean dives into each football season, how it went from being a 'a slum sport played in slum stadiums and increasingly watched by slum people' – as a Sunday Times editorial called it in 1985 – to a multi-gazillion pound industry. There are multiple episodes per season, as well as deep dives into the major international tournaments and some diversions into the wider world of sport and pop culture. Guests include Pat Murphy, David Goldblatt, Dominic Sandbrook, Kieran Maguire, Tony Evans, Gordon Smith and Scott Murray. There are Patreon exclusives, too: Q&As and a regular weekly feature called, er, This Week, in which we kick around seven dates from football's past. We'll soon be launching a Discord channel in which subscribers can hang out (okay, nerd out) with one another and the Nessun Dorma team. The more subscribers we have, the more we can all bathe in the past and pretend 2025 isn't happening. Think of it as a charitable donation. The main series is ongoing – we're currently at the business end of a quite glorious Euro 84 – and will probably end sometime in 2029. Here's what we've covered so far. We start at the bottom: the European Championship of 1980, a miserable, violent tournament played largely in front of empty stadia in Italy. Then we turn to the 1980-81 season, memorable in this country for the exploits of Aston Villa, Ipswich, Tottenham Hotspur – and Liverpool, who made amends for an unusually dismal league campaign by winning the European Cup for the third time. Euro 80 | Ipswich, Villa and Spurs (pt1) | Ipswich, Villa and Spurs (pt2) | Crystal Palace, Team of the Eighties | Liverpool's European triumph | Man Utd sack Dave Sexton | Cricket: Botham's Ashes? There were underdog stories galore in 1981-82, from Swansea's rise through the divisions to Liverpool rumbling inexorably through the field to win the title. Okay, that's hardly an underdog story but they were 12th at Christmas. We also look at the brief dominance of Spain's New Firm, Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao, and how a young Sven-Göran Eriksson led IFK Gothenburg to an emphatic Uefa Cup triumph. Liverpool, Swansea and more | Hooliganism and the Falklands | Sven, Gothenburg and the Uefa Cup | Spanish New Firm If you're aged between 44 and 54 – you are, aren't you – there's a fair chance you'll regard 1982 as the best World Cup of your lifetime. We devoted eight episodes to a festival of football in Spain. England | Scotland | Northern Ireland | Algeria and Cameroon | Brazil | Italy 3-2 Brazil & West Germany 3-3 France | Post-mortem | The draft The shock of the new was a recurring theme of the 1982-83 season. We discuss the other New Firm, the one established in Scotland by Sir Alex Ferguson and Jim McLean, celebrate the rise of Watford and Luton in England, investigate how Hamburg beat Juventus's galacticos to Europe's top table and trace the oft-forgotten origin of the ferocious rivalry between Arsenal and Manchester United. We also talk to Brighton striker Gordon Smith about one of the biggest what-ifs in FA Cup history and recall the retirement of English football's unassuming giant: Bob Paisley, who slipped quietly away from Liverpool after winning his sixth title in nine years. 'And Smith must score…' | Scotland's new firm | Origin story: Arsenal and Man Utd | The rise of Watford and Luton | Hamburg winning the European Cup | Bob Paisley's retirement On the morning of 25 April 1984, there was a fair chance that the three European finals that season would be all-British affairs. We cover the dramatic, brain-melting events of that day in a bumper pod, while also devoting episodes to the European runs of Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs were making headlines off the field too: we talk to Kieran Maguire about their groundbreaking floatation and the impact it had on football over the next 20-30 years. Nessun Dorma regulars Gary Naylor (Everton) and Mac Millings (Watford) do their best to remain impartial while recalling the 1984 FA Cup final between the sides. And the great David Goldblatt recalls the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984. The Division One season | 25 April 1984 | Kieran Maguire on the Tottenham flotation | Liverpool's European Cup triumph | Spurs' Uefa Cup run | FA Cup final | David Goldblatt on the LA Olympics It's hard to believe now, but the European Championship was an endangered species going into the 1984 tournament in France. Sixteen days of pulsating, unfettered football changed all that – although you wouldn't necessarily have known it in England, where only two of the 15 games were shown live. We've set aside seven episodes to cover the tournament, including two on the qualifiers alone. When you hear some of the stories – like the botched three-on-none attack that cost Bulgaria a place in France – you'll understand why. Qualifiers (pt1) | Qualifiers (pt2) | Group 1 | Group 2 | Semi-final one We are also running a sport draft for every year of our odyssey from 1980-2000. Mike Gibbons, Mac Millings and Gary Naylor each try to capture the sporting year with their choices, while also attempting discreet drive-bys on each other's selections. 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 We've done a handful of other drafts as well, including a couple of World Cups from the 1990s. Cricket World Cups. Division One 1984-85 | England in the 1990s | Premier League 1992-93 | Champions League 1999-2000 | Cricket World Cup 1992 | Cricket World Cup 1999 Since our last Sport Network post – where did those two years go – we've relived USA 94, from the shocking murder of Andres Escobar to the genius of Gheorghe Hagi, Romário, Roberto Baggio and Hristo Stoichkov. Preview | Groups A & B | Groups C & D | Groups E & F | Last 16 | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final and post-mortem Last but not least, there are a number of one-off episodes on a variety of subjects. When Italian Football Ruled Europe | Elton Welsby interview | Gary Lineker | The 1994-95 English season | Remembering Sven Nessun Dorma is available on iTunes, Spotify and Substack. You can also find it on Bluesky and Patreon.
Edinburgh Reporter
19-06-2025
- Sport
- Edinburgh Reporter
Findlay added to new-look Hearts
Defender Stuart Findlay has joined Hearts on loan from English Championship side, Oxford United. The 29-year-old started his career in the Celtic youth system and had loan spells at Morton, Dumbarton and Kilmarnock. He then moved to Newcastle United and was loaned back to Rugby Park, signing for the Ayrshire club on a permanent basis. Findlay has played for Scotland, scoring in the 6-0 Euro 2000 qualifier against San Marino. A spell with Philadelphia Union in America followed before he returned to Britain to play for Oxford United. The centre-half then switched back to Scotland, helping Kilmarnock finish fourth in the league. Derek McInnes, Hearts' head coach, (pictured) said: 'I know his attributes and every aspect of his game and he is a real leader on the pitch.' Meanwhile, Hearts have appointed Ross Grant as their first set-piece coach. He joins from Dundee United and has 15 years of experience to add to the Tynecastle team's coaching team. And Finlay Pollock has signed a one-year extension with Hearts. He is a product of the club's youth academy. Like this: Like Related
Qatar Tribune
05-06-2025
- Sport
- Qatar Tribune
Ronaldo ends Germany curse to send Portugal into Nations League final
dpa Munich Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winner after Francisco Conceicao emulated his father as Portugal ended their long curse against hosts Germany with a 2-1 comeback victory on Wednesday for a place in the Nations League final. Man of the Match Conceicao with a superb curling shot in the 63rd and Ronaldo's tap-in five minutes later reversed Germany's 48th minute lead from a header by Liverpool target Florian Wirtz. It was the 137th national team goal for the 40-year-old Ronaldo in his 220th cap, both figures being world records. Portuguese delight Portugal previously last beat Germany 25 years ago at Euro 2000 - 3-0 from a hat-trick by Conceicao's father, Sergio Conceicao. They then lost five times in a row against them, with Ronaldo featuring in all of them. Winners of the inaugural Nations League in 2019, Portugal advanced into Sunday's final in the same Munich arena which will be a contest for a second title because they will face either 2021 winners France or 2023 champions Spain. 'Conceding wasn't easy but we showed a lot of character,' midfielder Bernardo Silva told streaming portal DAZN, adding 'hopefully to win' the final but warning that 'France and Spain have a lot of quality.' Looking at Ronaldo, he praised 'his ambition to keep going. We are happy to have him with us.' Coach Roberto Martinez hailed his team's 'tactical flexibility' as he said: 'I never felt Germany had control. It is one of the games where you feel really proud as a coach.' German revival stalls Germany, who lacked in many aspects, will play for third place in Stuttgart on Sunday as their dream of a first title since the 2017 Confederations Cup ended with a first defeat since the Euro 2024 quarter-finals against eventual champions Spain. 'We were not good enough over 90 minutes to win this game. 'We didn't have enough courage and weren't clean enough. A lot more would have been possible,' said captain Joshua Kimmich, who earned his 100th cap. 'We have to learn our lessons and try to win on Sunday,' Kimmich said. Coach Julian Nagelsmann said: 'We weren't as ruthless as in previous games. We were not active after scoring, lost many balls.' TerStegen returns, Vitinha starts on subs' bench Marc-Andre ter Stegen returned between the Germany posts from a severe knee injury and in-form VfB Stuttgart forward Nick Woltemade started after being called up for the first time from a depleted squad missing the likes of Jamal Musiala, Kai Havertz and Antonio Rüdiger. Portugal midfielder Vitinha was benched five days after his heroics in the same stadium in Paris Saint-Germain's 5-0 Champions League final triumph over Inter Milan, while his PSG team-mates Nuno Mendes and Joao Neves started. Portugal's strong start, Germany try to hit back The match started a few minutes late because a hailstorm had delayed the warm-up, and although the hosts threatened early from Leon Goretzka it was Portugal who had the brighter start with high pressing. Ronaldo failed to hit the ball properly after a determined run from Pedro Neto down the left as Ter Stegen easily gathered, and Neto blazed over shortly afterwards. Germany grew into the game, and now Portugal keeper Diogo Costa needed big saves to deny first Woltemade in the 19th and Goretzka two minutes later. Portugal almost pounced seconds after the restart when Ronaldo just failed to connect with Mendes' sharp cross from the left at the far post. Wirtz scores but Portugal hit back Wirtz had been no major factor but in the 48th got the ball, passed it to Kimmich, ran into the penalty area and headed the captain's chipped ball into the far right corner for 1-0. Bruno Fernandes curled wide as Portugal sought a response and also brought fresh blood including Vitinha and Conceicao. Ronaldo headed over and had a free-kick blocked but Portugal were level in the 63rd when Conceicao cut inside from the right and sensationally curled into the far bottom corner. Germany were rattled and Portugal were ahead five minutes later when Ronaldo had no problems finishing off another low cross from Mendes. German substitute Karim Adeyemi hit the outside post but Portugal remained the more dangerous side. Ter Stegen saved superbly from Diogo Jota and Conceicao, and again from Jota seconds before the final whistle.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
🎥 5 legendary goals from France v Spain 🔥
There have been some bangers. This Thursday evening, France takes on Spain in the semi-finals of the Nations League. Over the years, this matchup has become a classic of international football and has often given us memorable goals. Advertisement To mark the occasion, OneFootball takes you back to the most striking goals from this confrontation. 5️⃣ - Zinédine Zidane (2000) We start with a gentle one with this magnificent free kick from Zinédine Zidane against Spain in the quarterfinals of Euro 2000. 4️⃣ - Franck Ribéry (2006) Franck Ribéry's birth certificate was issued on a June evening in 2006 in Hanover. Perfectly launched by Patrick Vieira, the winger went on to score a goal at least as cult as the comments of Thierry Gilardi that accompanied it. 3️⃣ - Zinédine Zidane (2006) Look, Zizou is back. While the Spanish had sworn to send him into retirement in the round of 16 of the 2006 World Cup, the French maestro delighted throughout the match. Advertisement ZZ even afforded the luxury of definitively killing off Spanish hopes by scoring the 3-1 goal, putting Carles Puyol in the wind. 2️⃣ - Karim Benzema (2021) As France is being roughed up by Spain and has just conceded the first goal in the Nations League final, the Blues react just two minutes after the opening goal thanks to an anthology goal from Karim Benzema. Decisive passer for Kylian Mbappé a little later, the Nueve will have allowed his own to snatch their first Nations League. 1️⃣ - Lamine Yamal (2024) It could hardly be anyone else at the top spot. At just 16 years old, in the semi-finals of the Euro, the Spanish prodigy will allow his team to come back to the score against the French team thanks to a memorable achievement. Advertisement A sublime strike that will also be elected the most beautiful goal of Euro 2024. Tell us which one is your favorite in the comments! Also read: - Spain - France: the mixed XI - Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappé's black cat - The 10 most expensive players in the world currently (CIES) This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here. 📸 AFP - 2006 AFP
