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Another football ship sinks …what’s wrong with us?
The Meteors were painfully unimpressive
Once again, the ship has sunk on its way to the Olympics – the Paris 2024 Olympics! It is the Meteors’ ship.
By the time the Games roar off, it would be 20 years since Ghana football made an appearance at the quadrennial Olympics. This is utterly shameful and totally unacceptable.
Last Friday, the nation’s Under-23 football team – Black Meteors, were bowled out of the Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations tournament after finishing third in Group A.
The mediocre-performing Ghanaians shared the spoils (1-1) with Guinea in the final group match to amass four points – an effort woefully sapless to power them through to the next stage.
Ghana needed to beat Guinea to secure a semi-final ticket – and thus qualify alongside Morocco who finished the group stage with a 100 per cent record – amassing nine points.
Though the Meteors, who beat Congo 3-2 in the opener, and the Guineans were three points apiece heading into Saturday’s sub-standard nerve-jangling tie, the Ghanaians were hugely handicapped in goals build-up – following their 5-1 thrashing by the Moroccans in their second group game.
What it means was that only victory could salvage the Meteors’ sinking ship.
Emmanuel ’99 Ideas’ Yeboah’s first goal on the half-hour mark was a booster – and took the Ghanaians into a discomforting break.
The Guineans, however, fought back fiercely to draw level in the second half and managed to hold on for a draw that qualified them to the next stage.
It was very depressed, disconcerting to see another journey burst into smoke. What could be the cause this time around?
Many have propounded all kinds of theories and reasons for the slump.
The one that, however, caught many off-guard was that which came from the team’s coach – Ibrahim Tanko, who stated emphatically that the Meteors team lacked quality.
It was one of the most damningly startling statements to emerge from a coach of team, who was believed to have been given the free hand to select his players. If so, would he now own up to have done a terrible job as players he picked for the tournament were sub-standard? Were the players selected for him? If so, why did he not resign as he was being manipulated like a puppeteer on a string?
Indeed, it is incredible to see a coach pick up players for a tournament, prepares them and tells the whole world he would qualify the team with the same players – ahead of the Guinea game, only for him to make a sharp U-turn and describe his charges as lacking quality?
Now, could we take the outburst of former Black Stars midfielder – Derek Boateng as true? The enraged Boateng made an audacious claim that the “the FA owns a lot of players in the national teams and that’s why we don’t perform.”
“When CK (referring to former coach Akunnor) was there, the FA were telling him the kind of players he should call and when things didn’t go well they kicked him out.”
Well, the truth though is that a decent number of the Meteors appear to be trash – pure rubbish – and it was a painful penance watching them in action – especially the game against the host nation. Never seen any technically inept Ghanaian side like this team! Aside a few of the players, the entire team had no desire, no passion, less productive, uneventful and less creative! How do you concede eight goals in just three games? Certainly, we did not see Ghana play – but a bunch players playing like drunken giants with mosquito limbs.
Again, truth be told, the nation’s football is speedily taking a nose-dive and the earliest we wake up to this hard reality, the better for us.
In the last 16 months or so alone, we have failed to qualify for the Under-17 and Under-20 AFCON – though we were defending champions in the latter.
We were also bundled out at the group stage during the AFCON 2021 tournament; we qualified for the Championship of African Nations (CHAN), but booted out in the group stages. Only last year, we were exited in the first round of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar!
Limpidly, there is something really wrong with our football – and it is no longer funny.
One of the main things that has to be tackled quickly is favouritism in selection. The self-interest appears to be taking centre stage. Players are no longer selected on merit – and in situations like that you do not expect any other result as seen in the Meteors – who became a laughing stock chiefly in their game against Morocco.
As we always say, let us go back to the drawing board – but this time around, be truthful to ourselves whether we really love Ghana football – or only interested in what goes into our pockets!
PlainTalk with John Vigah
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
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