Former Black Stars player, Mohammed Polo has attributed Ghanaian clubs’ poor performance at the inter-club continental competitions to the lack of technical direction of teams.
He told GNA Sports that the solution to clubs’ unimpressive showing at the continental level was to get the technical direction of clubs right, where local-based players are developed to feed the national teams.
Recently, Ghana Premier League giants, Accra Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko were booted out of the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) Confederation Cup and Champions League respectively at the preliminary stage, and Polo opined that this makes it difficult for domestic players to get a call-up into the senior national team, Black Stars.
Polo, popularly known as the “dribbling magician” said, “It is very clear that for some time now, clubs who win the league do not perform well in Africa, and this has continued for so long that we haven’t found a solution yet.
“The solution is the quality of the standard of football today. We need the technical direction of football at the club level because that is where we develop players and not at the national level.
“At the national level, it is the quality players that are called together to play, and due to that, we are even finding it difficult for a local player to fit into the Black Stars properly.”
The 65-year-old, a member of the team that won the 1978 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Ghana, added that “If teams can’t perform in Africa, how can they perform at the world level.”
“We have the talented players and all we need is the coaches’ additional value. It’s all about the coaches in the system, I think they are doing what they can do but it is not enough and it shows clearly when the teams go to play in Africa,” he said.
It would be recalled that the last time a Ghanaian club won a trophy in Africa was in 2004 when Accra Hearts of Oak won the CAF Confederation Cup.