Michael Essien's injury: is he irreplaceable?

Ghana’s radio and TV waves are on fire with the news that Michael Essien will not play in South Africa.

That the news is a telling blow is a given. The question is this: how would it affect our play?

Saw it coming
Many comments in the info-sphere in the past few hours show that a great many people were mentally prepared of this, given Michael’s own recent comments. In April, he told the Chelsea website that:

“If I make it for the World Cup then great – if not I have my whole career ahead of me. The last thing I want is to rush back and cause more problems down the line.”

A sound argument, but when he said that, many started feeling that the guy knew he wasn’t in good shape. Essien, as we know him, is a combative guy who does not go down unless he really is hurt. This is such a case.

The debate has been mostly about how unfortunate the whole thing is and crucially, how this would affect Ghana. Would we look back and say Essien’s absence cost us dearly?

Before we go on, take this quick poll:



So who replaces him?
Who in the Ghanaian team can bring what Essien brings to the side? In my opinion, nobody. His box-to-box effectiveness and his careful, accurate, passing as well as his multi-positional play and penchant to move forward and be an auxiliary striker are…well….priceless. I’m sure you agree.

Now, let’s look at the options.

Kwadwo Asamoah
I think the 21-year old Udinese dynamo is Essien-lite, but that’s all he is, Essien-lite. Yes, his passing ability is arguably better than Michael’s but he remains a very attacking minded midfielder. I’m yet to see anyone play Kwadwo as a utility player. That said, I feel he is the nearest to an Essien replacement in the Ghana setup.

Derek Boateng
Talented? Yes. Versatile? Yes. Essien’s kind of versatile? Nope. Derek is a good player whose form this past season with Getafe has been blistering, but he is miles away from being Michael. Derek is a good distributor of the ball and like Essien, can hold on to play if need be. But when it comes to strength and bull-like play, you have the wrong guy.

Bernard Yao Kumordzi
Think Nwankwo Kanu of Nigeria of Patrick Vieira of France. Perfect clone. A midfielder based in Greece with Panionios. The 25-year-old has also represented Norrkoping in Sweden and Egaleo in Greece having started his career in Ghana.

His tall and languid (not tall and lazy as some say) nature endears him to some brand of coaches, but he cannot replace Essien. Simple as that. A littel more about him: Bernard made his international debut for the Black Stars against Brazil in March 2007 and scored his first goal against Iran soon afterwards.

So what do we do?
Essien’s exclusion is now known, but we do not know if he may be taken in a Beckham-esque capacity to motivate the team. That would be a waste of space, because Essien is a very shy man, in terms of telling colleagues what to do and dictating play. He is not the Appiah kinda leader, sorry.

If Essien is dropped altogether, then it means that an extra seat on the plane needs to be filled. The bottom line is this we have to move on. And the coach knows it.

“There are other young and hungry players who will be equally passionate to play.”

The next few days would be very interesting. Who would/should Milovan put in Essien’s stead and how would it affect the team? Or are we even overblowing the issue?

Let’s hear you, while you vote as well.

BOOK REVIEW: Sellas Tetteh - My success story

Sellas Tetteh is the coach who won the Under 20 World Cup for Ghana last year, for the unititated.

Book type: Autobiography/Memoir
Authors: Sellas Tetteh & Aristo Dotse
Readership: General/Sport
Content: 95 pages, 16 chapters
Price: GH¢10 (US$7)
Publisher: Soccernet Publications

“I was a nice, beautiful midfielder.”

While speeding through the text of Sellas Tetteh’s novelty, this quote at the beginning of memoir kept coming back to me. By the time I was done reading, I was convinced that this self-held opinion of himself sums Sellas Tetteh up more succinctly like no one other in the book.

It is common knowledge that all fathers like to tell their wards about how brilliant students they were in their day. But in Sellas Tetteh’s case, you get the feeling that he wants you to accept what he was in his day, and what he is now. This is why I’d like to warn you in advance that if you do not like Sellas Tetteh, do yourself a favour and do not read his autobiography.

Sellas has achieved a lot. And if you want none of his successes in his book, look elsewhere. Sellas Tetteh: My Success Story is exactly that, a chronicling of Sellas Tetteh’s success story. He tells you, at times by coercion, to acknowledge and give him the respect that he feels is due him. But for the hungry football fan who wants to know more about the man who has catapulted himself and his country to such heights, the memoir is also very insightful.

Don’t mind the body
Though I have a feeling that the book was put together in a rush, it does not in any way detract from the relevance of its content. Yes, the typesetting is a bit suspect and yes, the layout is a bit dodgy, but it is the substance that matters. Many parts of the Holy Bible were first written on scrolls, yet the efficacy of their teachings is unquestioned.

I have quite a few biographies of football and athletics personalities in my library and to be fair, Aristo Dotse’s collaborative effort with Sellas Tetteh is good. It may not be the masterpiece that Liberty Professionals’ Felix Ansong claims it is in the book’s foreword, yet for the fact that this is the first Ghanaian football memoir (and possibly in Africa, too) Sellas Tetteh and Aristo Dotse can be proud of what they have done.

Accompanying this compelling read is a pictorial timeline of (mostly) Sellas’ life in football. The pictures attempt to grasp the wide reach of the coach’s experience, although my animated search for photos from his Bangladeshi playing days proved futile. My Success Story aims to capture the mindset of one man’s continuing struggle for acceptance, his heady successes and crushing regrets as well.

The purpose of a memoir is to give the audience access to little known information about key moments in the author’s life, not skimmed versions of it. This is where I feel the memoir fell short on a few occasions.

Sellas describes the origins of his established nickname, Borbor and its extensions, Borborson, Borborvich and Borborski. As well as many personal details, Tetteh explains how living in Nigeria shaped and affected his playing career, and later, his coaching as well. Since he spent almost all his playing days in Nigeria, one can understand why he makes countless references to our eastern cousins.

Self-actualization
In the whole book the most touching, and in many ways, the most apparent call for attention for a man who has done so much for himself and his country comes, once again, at the beginning. It is a known fact that Sellas sees himself as an heir to the Black Stars’ coaching job. However, I am sure that many have not really thought about why it has taken Ghana so long to offer him what Rwanda has now given him.

For Sellas, not playing for the Black Stars is not only the biggest regret of his life (as he said in a BBC interview with Michael Oti Adjei last Friday), but crucially, it “took something away” from him. That is a powerful statement. He goes on to soliloquy that perhaps if he had ever donned the national colours, he “could have been more favoured or considered for the Black Stars coaching job when it became vacant in 2006 following Dujkovic’s exit…..”

Several hints in other parts of the book gives me the impression that Sellas is waiting for his time to be coach of the Stars, in contrast to the earlier feeling he had that he owns a divine right to it.

Seeing this quickly took me back eight months, to October last year. In an interview I had with him in the immediate aftermath of the Under 20 World Cup win, Sellas told me he “would be the next Black Stars coach after Milovan [Rajevac].”Obviously, after winning the next most important trophy in world football after the World Cup, and with adrenaline coursing through him, it was understandable that he should say that.

With this in mind, I started looking for the part of the book where that statement would be reiterated. I did not find it. What I did find, though, was the current mindset of Sellas on the Black Stars coaching job. This mindset is apparent throughout his book, including in its final chapter, where he urges coaches to have “hard work, determination, discipline and MORE IMPORTANTLY patience” (emphasis mine) as they strive to reach the top.

This, together with several hints in other parts of the book gives me the impression that Sellas is waiting for his time to be coach of the Stars, in contrast to the earlier feeling he had that he owns a divine right to it. He confirmed this himself in the BBC interview I spoke of earlier.

Liberty links
Tetteh has always been synonymous with Liberty Professionals and he pulls no punches in drawing strong parallels between the Dansoman club and his success. Everywhere in the book there is a tone of gratitude to his former club employers. Sellas’ pride at being nurtured there and nurturing others there is obvious. His uses of flowing adjectives to describe some of the more illustrious Liberty products attest to this, as are his defenses of the club’s way of doing things.

The fourteen years Tetteh spent at Liberty were littered with many memories, his best of all being the beating of Hearts of Oak 3-2 in Accra ten years ago, in addition to developing many talented players. Among other things I’ll mention later, however, the book fails to address the widely held conspiracy that there is a ‘Liberty-GFA’ wicket gate that pushes these talented products of the club into the various national teams.

Sellas’ segues to his affair with the national teams and their associated ebbs and flows. He gained promotion to the Black Stars team in 2003 as assistant to then coach, Ralf Zumdick. Sellas describes working with the German as “just great,” but immediately reveals a little known nugget thereafter.

Although he does not go into specifics, Sellas blames his inability to make it to the Athens 2004 Olympics on a “misconstrued development in camp” by then coach Mariano Barreto. This, he says, was the biggest regret in his career.

In the few biographies that I have read, the explanation of this ‘misconstrued development’ would have been a good selling point for the book, for the purpose of a memoir is to give the audience access to little known information about key moments in the author’s life, not skimmed versions of it. This is where I feel the memoir fell short on a few occasions.

Who would not want to know the real deal about ‘the T.B. Joshua affair,’ or about the behind- the-scenes stories behind Ghana’s adventures to both the Korea 2007 and Egypt 2009 World Cups? Sadly, readers are only treated to recaps of the matches that were played and not the detail of how they were won tactically, psychologically, why he took certain telling decisions and so on.

As an example of what I mean, consider how Sellas makes us understand how he feels in relation to the whole Ishmael Yartey mess. After he led Ghana to win the African under 20 tournament in Rwanda, Sellas dropped Ishmael Yartey from the side just before the start of the World Cup. This was a decision that Sellas says was taken “purely on merit than any other reason.” Ishmael, according to Sellas, did not hold that opinion and sought to destroy his image out of frustration and disappointment.

He also tells how this affected the team and how they were able to rebound and funnel Ishmael’s words into positive aggression, which explains how the team recorded several sensational comebacks at Egypt 2009. This kind of chronicling is what makes football memoirs (and sporting ones in general) so special. Readers could have been given more of these nuggets.

The man within
Anybody who knows Sellas Tetteh would immediately recognize his voice leaping from the pages of the book. Many co-authored football memoirs have been criticized for not having ‘the man within.’ In a bid to be politically and grammatically correct, authors usually take the personality of the subject out of the book.

My Success Story, I’m glad to say, has Sellas Tetteh stamped all over it. His well-known wit, candour and (sometimes) over-expressive nature are all served copiously. Just like you would expect Sellas to, his diplomacy and tact are also present. Every success he recounts is soon followed by a shared credit with fellow Ghanaians, fellow coaches, players or administrators he has worked with, building tons of goodwill along the way.

Who would not want to know the real deal about ‘the T.B. Joshua affair,’ or about the behind- the-scenes stories behind Ghana’s adventures to both the Korea 2007 and Egypt 2009 World Cups?

Anybody who knows Sellas Tetteh would immediately recognize his voice leaping from the pages of the book. Many co-authored football memoirs have been criticized for not having ‘the man within.’ In a bid to be politically and grammatically correct, authors usually take the personality of the subject out of the book.

Every football fan who cares about Ghana’s real Special One (I wonder what Isaac Opeele Boateng would say about that!), the mystery of Sellas Tetteh’s ‘one in a million portrait’ and what has become known as ‘The Famous Shirt’ would find this book to be a good reference guide. As for journalists, it is an absolute must-read and must-have.

The writing of My Success Story means that for the many thousands of tertiary students who need information for their Long Essays or Project Works, there is light at the end of the dark reference tunnel. So often we have students who need basic information on football and yet do not get it. This book may be a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to understand the workings of Ghanaian, African and world football.

Double diligence
The book was co-authored by Aristo Dotse who, with about two decades of professional sporting writing experience, knows his stuff. Liverpool FC fans would also be familiar with some of his work on the club’s website, as well as the many literary works he’s put together in countless international publications over the years.

Having worked with him before, I’m deeply thrilled that Aristo has finally been given space to write ‘a very long article’. I’ve always maintained that if you gave Aristo the whole of this page to write a short piece, he would usually give you so much that you would have to edit. But like Sellas Tetteh says in the book, patience is key in everything.

Aristo has been patient. Now he has had 95 pages in which to write ‘a few words’ about Sellas Tetteh. I think he has not disappointed, as usual. And guess what, so long as Sellas continues to ‘do it again and again’ (as he likes to say), I can see a sequel to this memoir in the offing.

Shakira's official SA 2010 song not catching on?

Here is the official 2010 FIFA World Cup song. It's called Waka Waka (This time for Africa) by Shakira and Freshly Ground. It's not a bad song, I feel. But still, K'naan's is better!

See the lyrics after the video.



LYRICS

You're a good soldier
Choosing your battles
Pick yourself up
And dust yourself off
And back in the saddle

You're on the frontline
Everyone's watching
You know it's serious
We're getting closer
This isnt over

The pressure is on
You feel it
But you've got it all
Believe it

When you fall get up
Oh oh...
And if you fall get up
Oh oh...

Tsamina mina
Zangalewa
Cuz this is Africa

Tsamina mina eh eh
Waka Waka eh eh

Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa aa
This time for Africa

Listen to your god
This is our motto
Your time to shine
Dont wait in line
Y vamos por Todo

People are raising
Their Expectations
Go on and feed them
This is your moment
No hesitations

Today's your day
I feel it
You paved the way
Believe it

If you get down
Get up Oh oh...
When you get down
Get up eh eh...

Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa aa
This time for Africa

Tsamina mina eh eh
Waka Waka eh eh

Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa aa

Tsamina mina eh eh
Waka Waka eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa

Should "Wavin' Flag" have been the official World Cup song or what?

The song below was done by K'naan and taken by Coca Cola as its promotional song for the upcoming Mundial. And I think it's better than Shakira's song that's the official one.

The lyrics of Wavin' Flag  is after this video. Enjoy!



LYRICS

Ooooooh Wooooooho

Give me freedom, give me fire, give me reason, take me higher

See the champions, take the field now, unify us, make us feel proud
In the streets our head are liftin’, as we lose our inhibition,
Celebration it surrounds us, every nation, all around us


Singin forever young, singin songs underneath that sun
Lets rejoice in the beautifull game.
And together at the end of the day.


WE ALL SAY


When I get older I will be stronger


They’ll call me freedom Just like a wavin’ flag


And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back


When I get older I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag


And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes


Oooooooooooooh woooooooooohh hohoho


Give you freedom, give you fire, give you reason, take you higher
See the champions, take the field now, unify us, make us feel proud
In the streets our head are liftin’, as we lose our inhibition,
Celebration, it surrounds us, every nations, all around us


Singin forever young, singin songs underneath that sun
Lets rejoice in the beautifull game.
And toghetter at the end of the day.


WE ALL SAY


When I get older, I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag


And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back


When I get older I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag


And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes


Wooooooooo Ohohohoooooooo ! OOOoooooh Wooooooooo


WE ALL SAY !


When I get older I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag


And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back


When I get older I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag


And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes


Wooo hooooo hohohohoooooo


And everybody will be singing it


Wooooooooo ohohohooooo


And we are all singing it

SA2010: Brutal branding battles

Ghana’s branding experts should sit back, relax and enjoy the inevitable branding battles that would be displayed before, during and after the World Cup.

Let me first say that the many days taken to research the following article has been really eye-opening. For one thing, I have now come to have (even more) respect for the amount of effort and attention to detail that ad executives in Ghana (and elsewhere) put into their campaigns. Respect!

The World Cup is the world’s biggest sporting event, and I can hardly wait. There is something special about this tournament. It attracts a wide audience of people from different cultures and very few other sporting events can evoke such emotion and passion from across the globe.

This emotion and passion is the perfect ingredient needed to feed the games of hungry multinational companies that are focusing on the World Cup. The game is ambush marketing. The players are any number of multinational companies who did not fork out the prescribed sponsorship money. The field of play remains to be seen.

As in the past, whether at any soccer, rugby or cricket World Cups or any of the Olympic Games, the world will once again be intrigued and fascinated by the marketing games played behind the scenes and often also in public.

FIFA’s headache
FIFA, football's governing body, is aware of the ingenuity of the official "unofficial" commercial partners and sponsors of their showpiece. When I think of the various ways in which rival unofficial companies are cashing in on the coming World Cup, I laugh at the ignorance of Ghanaian companies (and their ad agencies) who just allowed the word ‘official’ to scare them off during the African Nations Cup in 2008 and African Cup for Nations hockey tournament last year.

Let the games begin. These four words, used as a phrase, is probably the most over-used phrase when launching sporting spectaculars ranging from the Olympic Games to any number of other competitions. However, apart from introducing the pinnacle of the beautiful game for the first time on the African continent, it also exposes the international past-time of brand holders beating FIFA at its own game.

One would have to look at who did not make the list of FIFA partners, 2010 sponsors and 2010 national supporters, to realize that FIFA is probably up against the cream of the crop of international brands and their creative and ingenious marketing teams. These brand holders probably cannot wait to get their slice of the proverbial pie and put one past the goalie!

The very nature of ambush marketing is for a party not to pay any sponsorship fee but to nevertheless associate itself with an event.

The receiving end of ambush marketing
Adidas, Coca Cola, Emirates, Kia/Hyundai, Sony and Visa, FIFA partners for the 2010 World Cup, have all been on the receiving end of ambush marketing by their traditional rivals. Nike, Pepsi and American Express have been very prominent in the past as a result of their creative ambushing tactics.

As a result of these often widely publicized exploits, one has to ask whether the enormous sponsorships payable by the official partners have given them any better exposure than the ambush marketers. Everyone in the sports business industry knows that Nike does not want to become "official", probably because of the aggressive and very successful ambush marketing campaigns it has had in the past.

As with Nike ambushing Converse in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, American Express ambushing Visa in Barcelona in 1992, Nike ambushing Umbro in UEFA Euro in 1996, Bavaria Brewery ambushing Budweiser in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany or PepsiCo ambushing Coca-Cola in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa will be no different.

However, the time has long gone for blatant and unimaginative latching onto such mega-events by ambush marketers.

One only has to consider what FIFA has put into place from a legislative point of view to protect its partners, sponsors and supporters, to realize that the casual, unsophisticated ambush marketer is in for a rough ride.

The protection granted to FIFA finds its legislative support in many very specific laws by the South African government. As part of its public awareness campaign, FIFA published guidelines on its website to illustrate instances of unauthorized commercial association with the 2010 event.

I downloaded it and I must tell you I stopped reading after a quarter of the document. They were very very strict.

Unlike during Ghana 2008 when many local businesses profited on the fringes of the official sponsors, several indigenes in South Africa have felt the brunt of the FIFA brand police.

Taboo
FIFA considers its trademarks to be "2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa", "2010 FIFA World Cup", "FIFA World Cup", "World Cup", "World Cup 2010", "Football World Cup", "SA 2010", "ZA 2010", "South Africa 2010", "Ke Nako -- Celebrate Africa's Humanity", "Soccer World Cup" and "Zakumi".

FIFA took a Pretoria pub owner to court to make him remove banners and flags that said: "World Cup 2010" and "2010 South Africa”. The manufacturer of a key-ring holder was taken to court because it bore the year "2010", a vuvuzela and the South African flag. Low-cost airline Kulula was asked to withdraw an advert declaring that it was the "Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What".

Public outcry against the strict measures meant that officials had to respond.

There was a roundtable meeting last week to discuss the issues and there, FIFA’s marketing director, Thierry Weil said: “When you buy a car, you buy it completely... you don't let everybody drive the car and it is the same for our partners -- they bought the car, they want the key and they want to be ensured they are the only ones driving the car."

Need I say more?

The time has long gone for blatant and unimaginative latching onto such mega-events by ambush marketers. It has been replaced by far more subtle and ingenious methods

Legitimate ambush marketing?
The very nature of ambush marketing is for a party not to pay any sponsorship fee but to nevertheless associate itself with an event.

The question that must be asked is whether this does not in fact provide actual guidelines to would-be ambushers as to precisely where the boundaries are.

Let me explain with this example. FIFA says the following marks may not be used in advertising, marketing or point of sale displays, which imply an association with the 2010 FIFA World Cup: “2010” or "Twenty Ten" used with the words “soccer, football, South Africa, RSA, SA, World Cup” or with soccer or FIFA World Cup imagery. In addition, "World Cup" cannot be used with the words "soccer", "football", South Africa, RSA, SA or soccer imagery.

I could go on and on and on. My point is that, once FIFA has said all these words cannot be used, are they not opening the door for rivals to use other words loosely associated with the event?

The use of any of the legitimate trademarks of any of the "official unofficial" sponsors would not be a defense to ambush marketing if it is used in any manner or form implying an association with the event. This clearly cannot be the case where any ambush marketer uses its trademark without any reference to FIFA or to the event.

In 1984, Nike created murals near the Olympic Games sites featuring Nike-sponsored track athletes. These murals were all visible from the sites. Later, FIFA countered this kind of marketing by implementing exclusion zones in which commercial activity by any person other than the accredited FIFA partners and sponsors is prohibited.

In 1996, during the UEFA Cup, Nike purchased all poster space and advertising sites in the tube stations leading to Wembley stadium. This has since lead to the organizers of UEFA renting all advertising space within a 1-3 km radius from the venues.

In both these instances, the organizers were unable to prevent the ambush marketing from taking place at the time. Measures were subsequently implemented to avoid this happening again.

The impact of these well orchestrated campaigns on the official sponsors and partners is far greater than the occasional infringement of the FIFA trademarks, prohibited marks of imagery.

The latter is normally easily dealt with by sending strongly worded “cease-and-desist letters.” However, a campaign where internationally well known trademarks are used would be notoriously difficult to stop.

At the very best, the organizers of such mega events can only hope to close loopholes as and when they are encountered. Examples are the efforts of UEFA who bought and controlled all broadcast advertising during matches and made it available only to sponsors.

The scene is set for the likes of Nike, MasterCard, Pepsi, Puma and a host of other international and local brand holders to showcase their marketing genius. Expect to see campaigns devoid of any soccer or soccer related images or themes.

Ambush marketers have come of age
If one considers the development of ambush marketing over the past 15 years or so, it is clear that the art (or science, if you will) has come of age.

It appears that the blatant latching on to a protected event such as the 2010 FIFA World Cup by official unofficial sponsors has been replaced by far more subtle and ingenious methods.

No company in its right mind will design an ad campaign in which any of the prohibited marks, registered FIFA trademarks or imagery is used. It is clear from the examples above that FIFA would successfully act against such unsophisticated ambush marketers.

The scene is set for the likes of Nike, MasterCard, Pepsi, Puma and a host of other international and local brand holders to showcase their marketing genius. Expect to see campaigns devoid of any soccer or soccer related images or themes.

Expect American Express to embark on a campaign that has as a central theme the fact that you do not require a visa to visit South Africa. They have after all done it before, quite successfully.

Expect Nike to embark on a large-scale campaign to advertise their sponsorship of an unrelated international event in the local press. As in the case of American Express, they have done so successfully in the past.

In all this, I hope the MTNs, Vodafones, Guinnesses and other big shot outfits of Ghana are watching with keen interest. The lessons to be learned are many and can be the difference between profit and loss. So, let the games begin!

They say Zlatan is gay. And he responds. If this were Africa!

In Ghana, and Africa, homosexuality is not only taboo, it could get you castrated, jailed, ostracised or all of the above. And more.

The biggest football story (apart from the title race) of the weekend in Spain has centred around a picture of Barcelona teammates Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gerard Pique which caught the twosome in a close embrace and sparked wild rumours that the pair are homosexual.

Looking to get to the bottom of the story, one annoying Spanish reporter tracked down the Swedish striker and cornered the forward on confirming his sexual preference.

Initially ignoring the female reporter’s question of “Ibra, what do you think of the photo?,” a few minutes later the Barcelona hitman called the woman over to his car and offered a very telling response to her question.

Zlatan: “Come to my house and you’ll see if I’m gay… And bring your sister!”

Have a look. It leaves me wondering what an African player would do if he were asked such a question because of a photo like that.



Video courtesy 101gg.

Poll: Can Rajevac's squad take Ghana to the second round?

Ghana's World Cup team - the provisional 30 man list - has been named.

Here it is>

Goalkeepers: Richard Kingson, Daniel Agyei, Stephen Aholu, Stephen Adams

Defenders: John Paintsil, John Mensah, Samuel Inkoom, Hans Adu Sarpei, Rahim Ayew, Lee Addy, Isaac Vorsah, Jonathan Mensah, Eric Addo

Midfielders: Michael Essien, Kwadwo Asamoah, Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu, Anthony Annan, Sulley Muntari, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, Stephen Appiah, Andre Ayew, Laryea Kingston, Derek Boateng, Bernard Kumordzi, Haminu Draman

Attackers: Asamoah Gyan, Prince Tagoe, Dominic Adiyiah, Mathew Amoah

Now, let's know what you think!

Va-va-vroom: Vodafone’s vision for velocity

Gary knows Go Karting is an insanely pleasurable experience, but also knows that Vodafone’s efforts at revving the sport in Ghana may meet some pit stops

Two pedals are all you need: an accelerator and a brake. The rest is common sense. Those are the basics of having the drive of your life in the many available Go Karts (or simply, karting) at the Formula One Isllant Raceway, behind the Trade Fair Centre here in Accra. Yet the push needed, in many respects, to create this simple pleasure is anything but basic.

Let me take you back to one pleasant Sunday afternoon in 1999. My dad informs me that he is taking me for a drive at the Raceway. I look at him once. Then I blink, and look at him again. He is not joking. To put it mildly, I nearly go mad due to overexcitement.

At the time the most dominant person in the sport worldwide was Michael Schumacher. Yes, I wanted to be a journalist. Yes, I wanted to be pilot. Yes, I wanted to be a lawyer, a doctor and half a dozen things in between. And I wanted to be ‘Schumi’ too.

Even though I had just five or ten minutes on the track at the Raceway, it is up there with a few other things as one of the very best memories of my childhood.

So when I got the media invitation from Vodafone to go for test drive last week, the smile on my face could have lit up the Ohene Djan Stadium better than the floodlights ever could. I was not aware that the place had been revamped, as it had fallen a bit into disrepair for some time. And, like eleven years ago, I was not disappointed.

A bit about the sport
Karting, and motor sport in general, is not what you would call the typical Ghanaian pastime, not by a very long stretch. Yet it has always captured the imagination of people in this country, especially the males. The mad rush of adrenaline at speeding and overtaking has few comparisons.

When the former World Racing Champion Lewis Hamilton was asked to describe motorsport, he rightly described it thus: “This is the best feeling I've ever had. You cannot compare it to sex. But you know? I would say it is better than sex. It is!”

These are very true words from a soon-to-be legend. Although I came a distant seventh in the Vodafone Log-On Go Kart Media contest, it opened my eyes to a lot of things. Kart racing is usually used as a low-cost and relatively safe way to introduce drivers to motor racing.

Many people associate it with young drivers but as we witnessed, adults are also very active in karting.

The karts are rented by sessions (10 to 15 minutes usually) and they use sturdy chassis completed with dedicated bodywork providing driver safety.

The Raceway at Labadi uses an "Arrive and Drive" format which provide customers with all the safety gear (helmets, gloves and so on) where necessary and allow them to show up any time to race at a reasonable price, without the hassle of owning one's own equipment and gear. For 10 cedis, you can have the ride of your life.

Red letter affair
Vodafone’s love affair with the Raceway makes for interesting reading. The name Sandy Anderson may ring bells if you’ve been on the higher end of business in Accra for a long time. And it should. He is a well known venture capitalist who was one of the owners of Sunrise Hotel at North Ridge in Accra (now Alisa Hotel). This same Anderson owned the Raceway.

A little while after my first visit to the track twelve years ago, Mr. Anderson decided to sell the franchise. After he decided to cut his losses due to mostly financial reasons, the unavailability of prospective buyers meant the Raceway went down for a while.

Last year, a Ghanaian businessman, Ismail Lamptey, took on the challenge of reopening the place. As a business venture, managing it has not been easy for him, but he believes that the coming of Vodafone has been timely. “They came at the right time because the plans we have for go karting in Ghana need a huge corporate push. When we got the deal, we breathed a huge sigh of relief and are happy about this relationship.”

When Ismail got the place, he promptly completed its born-again status by calling it Formula One Isllant Limited. The next step was to get corporate backing. It took a long time but when they came on board, Vodafone agreed to invest an amount believed to be in the region of GHC 350,000 (about $250,000) to become the title sponsors for the event. Sikkens, sole representatives of Akzo Nobel paints in Ghana, are also part of the racing family.

The relationship is not only financial, though. Building on the work of the GTCares community projects programme, the Vodafone Foundation has partnered the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) in a joint quest to reduce the road rage in Ghana. It seems the company also felt karting was a good conduit through which to spread their message.

As is typical of the Vodafone Foundation, the NRSC partnership has been very much on the quiet side. You do not hear a lot of noise about it, unlike MTN, whose 21 Days of Y’ello Care started on May Day and is always in the media.

Speed rumps and challenges
There is the temptation to think that the involvement of one of the biggest telecom giants in the world would make for easy pickings for Formula One in Ghana. That is not the case. When we started the media competition on Saturday, a few of the karts cars stubbornly broke down repeatedly, in protest at the lack of new parts. I asked the resident mechanics about the struggles they faced in keeping the machines going and they revealed how they had to improvise.

According to Nii, one of the mechanics, a single kart costs as much as $2500, not to mention import duty and the usual taxes. When the karts arrive, the issue of maintenance rears its persistent head. Most of the karts in Ghana are either fitted with one or two-stroke engines and are water-cooled, meaning that they need constant checking.

Though the mechanics on duty do a lot of improvisation, it was clear that some professional orientation was necessary. For Nii, the wayside ‘fitting shop tactics’ are not the best for karting, which he admits, is a specialized field. These and other factors have made things a bit challenging.

Yet, for the soft-spoken Cynthia Torto, Events and Sponsorships Manager for Vodafone, these challenges make the endeavour sweeter: “We do not only put our support behind the large and complete events, as it were. Vodafone is very much proud to be associated with ventures that have the promise of potential. Together, we will grow the sport to world class standards.”

Well said, but then she should be aware that the average Kofi and Kuukuwa do not give two tots about “ventures that have the promise of potential.” What the public wants is a smoothly run operation. So what am I telling Vodafone? Release the money for developing the sport, and be quick about it!

The guys at the Raceway can do the job and contrary to what many think, they do not need expatriates to this for them. After all, in September last year Vodafone Group Plc established the Vodafone Ghana Foundation, with an initial commitment of £200,000.

While reading for this piece, I learned that Vodafone is one of the major sponsors for Lewis Hamilton. Surely, Ms Torto and her department could weave Ghana into Hamilton’s plans for sometime in the coming years? I will not be naïve and say it’s that simple but I think getting him down here would be fantastic leverage for all concerned.

Sure, it would make for a nice bit of ‘out-of-Africa’ social responsibility media image for him. Of more concern to me, however, is the fact that Hamilton in Ghana could force the hand of the various sporting authorities to give karting and Formula One another look. Sometimes, it’s all in a day’s work for someone like Lewis.

Accelerating the sport
Now that I have dug into the company a bit, I must admit that there are shoots of progress visible for go karting in Ghana. The facility at the Raceway is the only one in West Africa. It is also one of just nine available on the continent. All the other eight can be found in….you guessed it….South Africa.

The media coordinator for the Log On event, Phillip Joni Quartey, who also headed the planning committee of the competition, mentioned that several events have been lined up in the immediate aftermath of this series to push the sport. There was talk about an inter-schools karting event very soon. That would be massive.

Kart racing is generally accepted as the most economic form of motorsport available. As a free-time activity, it can be performed by almost anybody from the age of 8 onward. This means that an inter-schools event would create a base of racing-loving kids who would be the bedrock of Ghana’s national teams in the future.

Speaking of national karting teams, the Vodafone and the Formula One Isllant management are said to be looking at a possible National Karting Competition that would start soon. And then there is a planned 4-nation tournament to cover the West African sub-region.

Exciting times are ahead for the riders and speedsters, certainly. However it does not take away the fact that there is a lot of work to be done to put Ghana on the racing map, be it in karting or Formula One. But I do have to agree with Cynthia Torto and her Vodafone crew who kept repeating the mantra: it’s our time and it’s a good start.