We’re rebuilding a foundation in football, says Neil Armstrong-Mortagbe

Neil Armstrong-Mortagbe, head of public relations and strategy at the Ghana Football Association (GFA), has stressed the importance of focusing on youth development to secure the future of Ghanaian football. 

Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show (ABS) on Monday (2 September), Armstrong-Mortagbe highlighted the narrowing quality gap between countries, warning that Ghana risks being left behind if it fails to adapt.

“Our football has not been where we all expect it to be; it’s not been where we all feel that we could be, given the level of talent that we have in our country,” Armstrong-Mortagbe said. 

“The truth is, a lot has happened across the continent and across the world in terms of the development of football. Where it was that in times past, a number of nation-states on different continents were streets ahead of other countries on their continents, the gap has narrowed.”

“So because that gap has closed, if you don’t up your game and keep ahead, you’ll be chased down and you’ll be for the lack of a better word, wiped out. So it’s not like Ghana has been wiped out but that’s where we could get to if we don’t up our game.”

To prevent this, Armstrong-Mortagbe revealed that the GFA is focused on rebuilding its foundation by investing heavily in youth football. 

He referenced the success of Ghana’s 2006 and 2010 World Cup teams, which were built on strong youth systems, and emphasised the need to return to that blueprint.

“Where we are now is a place where I would say we are rebuilding a foundation,” he explained. “Our president, Kurt Okraku, talks about fixing the fundamentals, so a lot of work is going into fixing the fundamental side.”

“The teams that showed up very strongly in [the] 2006 [and] 2010 World Cup were built from a system that caught them at the youth level and so the idea is if that was the blueprint as you described earlier that brought us the level of a quarterfinal of the World Cup, let’s go back to that blueprint. Let’s invest heavily in the youth, which is what we are doing now.” 

“You’ve got KGL Foundation sponsoring to the tune of US$1 million, Colts football. That has helped build the under-17 brand of Colts football. Obviously, you want it to cascade down to under-15, so this year we had an elite under-15 for girls. We are going to have elite under-15 for boys and so there’s a [under]-15, there’s a [under]-17, there’s a [under]-19.”

Armstrong-Mortagbe reiterated that a strong focus on youth is essential for Ghana to remain competitive on the global stage. 

“It’s about building that foundation and widening the pool of talent that you can select youth players from in the hope that as you build them from that level with a certain philosophy of Ghana football, by the time they’re getting to play for the Black Stars, they know what is expected of them.”

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