Let me begin this with a question: If Ghana were a team, like say the Black Stars or Chelsea or Brazil and President Mills was the coach, would he keep his job or get fired? I and indeed many others who have been to Graduate school have learnt that scenarios and analogies are indispensable tools in assessment and decision-making in many situations. Soccer, the most popular sport in the world, is rather unforgiving towards both coaches and players. While how players are dealt with is interesting, today, I want us to focus on coaching. Dunga , one of Brazil’s most celebrated players was appointed the national coach with one task: to win a World soccer cup. He did a lot, winning many matches and even the 2009 Confederations Cup. However, in the World Cup in South Africa, Brazil was eliminated at the quarter-final stage by the Netherlands. The next day, Dunga resigned as the coach of Brazil and took responsibility for the failure of the team. It was failure because Brazil defines success on the international stage by World Cups won—nothing less and no excuses. There was no debate about whether he should have been sacked or not. Everyone, including Dunga knew he had to leave. Last summer, Andrea Villas-Boas arrived at Stamford Bridge as one of the youngest coaches in the team’s history with one goal; to make Chelsea better and demonstrate that by winning trophies. He had arrived with a lot of accolades. The man had won a treble with F.C. Porto, including the UEFA Europa league. Indeed, he was the youngest coach ever to win the competition. Many expected him to do very well at Chelsea. However, after underperforming in the League, team owner Abramovich decided he had seen enough. He gave Villas-Boas the sack and Chelsea responded with a series of wins. The issue was not whether the coach was good or not. It was that his performance had not been good enough. To return home to Ghana, right after the World Cup in South Africa, Ghana hired Serbian coach Goran Stevanovic as the national coach. He promised to win trophies with the team. Fresh from being the losing finalist at the Cup of Nations’ tournament in Angola and missing the semi-finals of the World Cup by Asamoah Gyan’s misdirected foot, Ghana and indeed Africa expected a lot from the Black Stars. Unfortunately, in Equatorial Guinea/Gabon, the Stars were disappointing. We finished fourth. For a nation that had lifted the continental crown with local coaches four times, that was unacceptable. Immediately after that, the finger-pointing and excuse-making started. The team was divided. Players were using juju against one another. There were too many injured players. After some painful agonizing by the Ghana football association, coach Stevanovic was sacked. Since then there has been a lot of debate about whether he should have been sacked or given another chance. Today, I will let that argument rage but it would appear that his dismissal was consistent with the high expectations that countries and clubs have of their coaches. Indeed, for failing to qualify for Nation’s Cup, Nigeria and a few others fired their coaches. Furthermore, since the competition, some countries, including Senegal, have sacked their coaches for poor performance. To be balanced, while clubs and nations punish poor performance by coaches, they also reward good performance. Sir Alex Ferguson has been at Old Trafford as coach of Manchester United for so long because he keeps winning trophies. Pep Gardiola , Jose Mourinho, and Vicente Del Bosque of Baca, Real and the Spanish national team are celebrated because they keep winning. The name of the game is performance and results. To return to my question: If Ghana were a team, would Coach Mills keep his job? Come with me as we join a meeting of the Board of Directors of Team Ghana. The board Chairman would open the meeting this way. “Good afternoon everybody, this meeting will come to order. We have met here to deliberate on whether Coach Mills should keep his job. He has been coaching this team for the last three years and it is time to decide whether his contract should be renewed. I will go round for comments and then finally, Coach Mills will respond to our concerns and make the case for his contract renewal.” The first board member, Opanin Kanopenpen said, “Well, I have nothing personal against Coach Mills. Indeed, as you all know, I was very instrumental in getting him hired. Remember he did not have much experience in coaching but I got him hired as assistant coach and then he was later promoted to head coach. Now here are my concerns. First, for reasons that are difficult to understand, Coach Mills decided to use the nation’s team B, instead of Team A. I just cannot understand how a good coach; any good coach can deliberately leave his best players on the bench match after match while we lose Games. When we started losing games, we all expected him to make adjustments but his adjustments only made the team worse.” The next Board member Opanin Diawuo said, “My problem is that apart from losing matches, this team has become so undisciplined. They tackle recklessly on the field and they will insult any referee. They get into unnecessary fights with other players. This has led to an avalanche of yellow and red cards. The result is that in match after match, we end up playing with ten men to our detriment. We need a disciplined team and this coach cannot bring discipline to our team.” When it got to his turn, Nana Ndomi said: “My beef, apart from all the other things enumerated is that our players have been selling matches. It seems that we lose matches inexplicably and we are on our way to setting a record on own goals. Look at how we lost to the nation of Woyombia! Three own goals and none of the players involved was even suspended! As I speak, they are all still players for the national team in good standing.” The final Board member, Agya Mframa, celebrated for his equivocation said: “Now, I think things have been difficult for coach Mills but it has not all been his fault. Since he became coach, our team has been training longer and harder than ever before. I think the coach’s team B is finally maturing. Indeed, we are on the brink of some unprecedented achievements. One must break a team down before he can build it up. The break-down is almost complete and those of you who understand soccer know that things will get better. We know that some of those speaking against Coach Mills are interested in getting other people to coach this team. That is why he is being attacked.” Then the Board Chairman invited Coach Mills to make his case. Coach Mills will prayed and then began to speak. Frankly, I do not know what the coach will said but I return to my question: If Ghana were a soccer team, will coach Mills keep his job? Here is another related question: Should we hold our national soccer coaches to higher standards than we hold our Presidents? While these questions look simple, they will help us to define who we are to ourselves and guide us as we prepare to make our decision in 2012. To be fair to the President, I may be biased in not seeing his performance as a coach. That is why in my piece, I deliberately refrained from concluding. It is possible that the President and his team can make a case that will persuade Ghanaians that to use a soccer analogy again, “We have a Jose Mourinho in our midst”. To do that, he will have to point to Championships won. The name of the game in coaching is championships won. Finally, scenarios are meant to crystallize issues and choices and it is my hope that this playful piece has helped all of us think of where Ghana is and where our President stands in our estimation. Let us move forward, together. Arthur Kobina Kennedy