Sports is a reflection of society and football is the biggest one in Ghana and just as there is apprehension on the part of the Ghanaian government worker who gives little to the public course but gives everything to his or her private course, the “Aban Edwuma” syndrome is real and not in Dreams FC’s favour.
There has been a dearth of major football success for Ghana in recent years and that poor state definitely played a role in the massive turn out for Ghana’s juvenile teams in the 13th African Games held in Ghana.
The Black Satellites and Black Princesses played in front of jam packed stadiums in Accra and Cape Coast respectively and after recovering from the jitters of playing before a frenetic crowd for the first time, the national teams delivered gold.
On the magical day of March 22 that had Ghana win seven gold medals including the Black Satellites big scoop, Joseph Paul Amoah’s fine run in the Men’s 200 Metre race and four boxers score first place wins, it was clear Ghana sports was on the up.
Sports news is bound to receive major attention and hype, be it, negative (as directed at the media by acolytes of the Sports Ministry in the early days of the African Games) or positive, as witnessed by the overwhelming support Ghanaians showed to athletes throughout the 13th African Games.
Enter Dreams FC. The Ghana Premier League side and defending MTN FA Cup Champions are, no pun intended, living the dream. In their debut run in the CAF Confederation Cup, Dreams FC have achieved a lot of credit many heavy hitters on the Ghanaian scene have longed for decades but haven’t been able to record.
Making it to the quarterfinals is big but beating Stade Malien 2-1 in Mali and being on the verge of making it to the semifinals is truly a big big deal.
Putting Dreams FC’s first leg win over Malien into proper context, the Still Believe lads are the first Ghanaian team to record an away win in a CAF competition at the knockout stage in 24 years and just three games away from competing in the CAF CONFED Cup final game.
Since recording the John Antwi-powered impressive win, there has been a rallying cry to fill the Baba Yara Stadium for Dreams’ second leg fixture against Stade Malien and recreate the brilliant atmosphere witnessed at Cape Coast and Accra.
However, it is safe to say the “Operation Fill The Baba Yara” will hit a big, thick wall and the spectatorship won’t be anything to write home about. Realistically, for Dreams FC to fill half the Baba Yara, they might have to adopt the Ghanaian political party strategy of bussing folks to a set location to make this happen.
Even in the heart of Ghana’s football and sports capital, Kumasi to a large extent, Dreams FC’s lack of major traction is down to a couple of reasons that are closely related and another that has an intrinsic connection to Ghana’s National Men’s Football Team-the Black Stars and the men who are synonymous with it.
Dreams FC have adopted the Baba Yara Stadium as its home ground for the CAF CONFED Cup campaign and that comes with its fair share of struggle to draw fans to the stadium. Closely related to this, Dreams FC isn’t a traditional club and lacks the allure of an Ebusua Dwarfs, Bofoakwa Tano or BA United; such clubs have the ability to draw more fans than your average privately-funded club like Dreams FC.
Addressing the elephant in the room, the main reason for the generally muted response to Dreams FC’s success is down to Kurt Okraku’s connection to the contrasting form of the Black Stars and the Dawu-based club.
The Dreams FC Board Chairman doubles as President of the Ghana Football Association and is a Black Stars Management Committee Member with all this coming in Dreams FC’s rise at a time the Black Stars successes have been trending downwards.
There is more spice to this awkward situation with Dreams FC General Manager Ameenu Shardow also playing the role of Black Stars Team Manager. A lot of things that are wrong with the Black Stars and have contributed to back to back exits at the 2023 AFCON at the preliminary stage are seemingly absent in the Dreams FC circles.
The Black Stars as always, have a great deal of creative offensive players but have had misfit coaches lead them in this period. Between CK Akonnor, Milovan Rajevac and Chris Hughton, there is very little offensive impetus to maximize the abilities of the young talents.
Making matters worse, the odd decision to appoint John Paintsil as Black Stars assistant coach in the face of his significant inexperience doesn’t really inspire confidence that the downturn in fortune for Ghana will change anytime soon.
Scouting for the Black Stars has been another area of major concern as players who hardly feature in games and impact the team positively, are constantly called up leaving the team short on reliable back up options outside a few core players.
Administration-wise, the Black Stars aren’t exactly a beacon of top level management operations looking at, for instance, the hefty wages doled out to individuals doing redundant work with the team.
On the flip side, Dreams FC is a well run club that initially had a steady flow of coaches who embraced the defensive side of the game and made the team difficult to breakdown.
Hence, the appointment of coaches like CK Akonnor and Vladislav Viric fit the mold but that has changed following the infusion of top creative talents in the team. This reflects in the appointment of former Black Satellites head coach Abdul Karim Zito to lead the technical department.
On scouting, Dreams FC possess some of the best young talents on the Ghanaian scene with three players Abdul Aziz Issah, Ofori McCarthy and Emmanuel Adjei playing roles in the Black Satellites gold medal winning team. Looking at Dreams FC’s growth over the years in the shadows of the Black Stars decline, it is shocking that Kurt Okraku is heavily linked to both teams.
This almost smacks of the average Ghanaian employee at a government institution who is only concerned about themselves and not the impact their conduct plays in the overall growth of the institution.
This type of attitude, at least from the looks of it, is a big turn off and it isn’t surprising that Dreams FC is still flying under the radar. Dreams FC’s 2023-2024 run in Africa is one for the books even if the club misses out on making it to the final and winning the title and that deserves more fanfare from the football fraternity and beyond than it has had.
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