Repairing the factories

''Ghana is a football mad country'' is a trite you often hear people mutter and that is very true.Everyday of the week presents a new angle to the ever-exciting subject and weekends belong to the gods of the beautiful game as pubs become extensions of Europe's most popular grounds and the local stadia get their ''fair'' share of patrons too.So in every sense of the phrase,we do love our football but how much are we doing to keep the player production line working? Very little,I must say and it is very worrying.
Yesterday,the ''money bags'' of football,Manchester City announced a plan to put up a state-of-the-art footballing project named the Etihad campus that will seek to develop local English talent primarily in the Manchester area and they mean it too by getting an 80-acre area that will house 15 full-size pitches,a 7,000 seater mini-stadium,staff offices,a media centre,an educational centre that will cater to 200 young players.This project should train 400 players and will house 32 first-team and 40 youth-team players.To top it off,there will be a pedestrian bridge connecting the campus to the Etihad stadium.Quite stunning and maybe too farfetched for a developing country like Ghana,some might say but when the number of local talent in the Black Stars is constantly below 5,you begin to see the wisdom in Manchester City's project.It becomes even more apparent when you consider the fact that in Kevin-Prince Boateng,Adam Kwarasey,Albert Adomaa and possibly Emmanuel Frimpong (if the situation clears up) and even Andre Ayew,we have players who were moulded,baked and packaged in Europe but fortunately,they chose the red,yellow and green over the European options.This leaves us wondering whether the local production line is still working effectively as it should. The Ghanaman Soccer School of Excellence should have been our response to Clairefontaine in France but it only rivals the French establishment as the national team camp but not in the daily grooming of players as the French have done for years with Thierry Henry,Nicholas Anelka and Louis Saha among their illustrious alumni.Our local clubs should also play their parts effectively but it's not chalk cheese.A massive amount of funds would have to be spent but taking the initiative is the first step to an ultimate end in national success because history has given us examples of Ajax in the 70s and now,Barcelona's La Masia to learn from.
Talent,just like all raw materials,need processing but if the factories are non-existant,they will remain untapped and very unused.
Let's get to work now.