Former Editor of the Kotoko Express, Jerome Otchere, has blamed the National Sports Authority’s lack of circumspection for the problems plaguing the Ghana Football Association ahead of the Ghana Black Stars and Nigeria Super Eagles clash on March 20.

According to him, had it not been that the NSA had posted images of the ruined pitch right after the Independence Day celebrations on their Twitter handle, the Nigerian Football Association would not have protested the venue to CAF.

This would have prevented the quandary the GFA currently finds itself in regarding switching venue for the match while the Cape Coast Stadium’s pitch gets repaired, he said.

Work has begun in earnest to restore the Cape Coast Stadium pitch immediately after the 6th March Independence anniversary last Sunday; and in preparation to host the Ghana vs Nigeria World Cup qualifier match on March 25, 2022. pic.twitter.com/zCrPmIjipA

— National Sports Authority, Ghana (@Gh_NSA) March 9, 2022

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Tuesday, he said, “I’ve been listening very carefully to everything that has been going on regarding this pitch issue and Evans, I initially mentioned leadership. Let us call out the NSA. Everything that has happened is as a result of the poor leadership of the NSA.

“Everything that has happened is as a result of the NSA not being in touch with reality. The reality that in this world today, if you want to do PR, you must think through whatever you put out, the NSA I’m sorry did not do that.”

“Why we are having this conversation is that the NSA sought to publish pictures that they should have kept away from the public. Because all of us in Ghana who cover football know very well that our pitches are not good.

“Yes we’ve been trying to do something about it to get players to play, to get teams to play, what the NSA did is what has brought us to this point because on Monday morning right after the 6^th March event, they published pictures showing a pitch that everybody who follows football will cringe after seeing the pictures,” he added.

Jerome Otchere explained that the publication of those pictures were damning for Ghana’s image and sought to project the poor state of affairs at the Cape Coast stadium.

“So for instance, when I saw the pictures on their twitter handle, the first thing I did was to quote the tweet and tell them to stop publishing those pictures, because for me it was an advertisement of the poor state of affairs at Cape Coast.

“And when they sought to correct the bad impression they’ve given of Ghana they sought to again publish pictures that they filtered. And who were they deceiving?” he said.

He stated that he agrees with Nigeria’s decision to protest the pitch and called for more attention to be paid to the quality of pitches especially in Ghana to avoid a repetition of this incident.

“I am happy the Nigerians took on this issue because you see like I was saying, whoever likes football, whoever follows football – and Sannie was talking about the caliber of players we expect to play on certain pitches. I am not surprised for instance Gambia and Chad will have to play their matches somewhere because you see we’re bringing home players who are very expensive.

“And even if they are not expensive, it’s their careers at stake. They can twist an ankle on a bad pitch and so FIFA must be concerned on the quality of pitches we play on. So in my view it is a matter of we talking so much about liking sports, being so passionate about sports, trying to pump so much money into the game but in reality it is just waste because at the end of the day the very things you’re supposed to do to keep these facilities in shape we neglect it,” he said.