The British expatriate, who has been heavily involved in grass-root football with the establishment of one of Ghana’s finest sports academies, spoke his heart out on Power FM’s flagship morning show, ‘Power Sports In the Morning’. He believes more attention and finances should be aimed at developing the game at the early stages than into the more established levels.
He said: “If you look at it now, the vast majority of those players (established players) were made through the under-17 and the under-20. I think that those players should want to give back to Ghana and they don’t need bonuses to play hard for the country,” he said on Accra-based Power 103.5FM.
“You look at the outlay for one game for the Black Stars in their allowances and bonuses and you’re probably averaging $14,000.
“If you look at a squad that gets about $200,000 for every game that Ghana plays, my personal opinion is that instead of that money going to those guys in each game who have already benefitted from the system, it should be going to the next generation by building academy structures and putting up artificial pitches around the country,” he added.
“I’ve been in Ghana for fifteen years so I’m just imagining how many times we’ve signed a cheque of around $200,000 for the Black Stars to play a game and what I could have done for youth development in the country.
“If the players thought that instead of making huge bonuses, the money would be going into the nurturing of their younger brothers, that would be great,” he concluded.
Tom Vernon’s Right to Dream Academy is one of Ghana’s top youth development centres which combine sports with academic work with several students offered scholarships to continue their development abroad. The 13-year-old academy has, in recent times, produced the likes of Abdul Majeed Waris, David Accam, and Mohammed Abu who have all gone on to represent the Black Stars.
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