Daniel Opare advises authorities to invest in sports infrastructure

Former Ghana defender Daniel Opare has issued a stark warning, calling on authorities to make massive investments in sports infrastructure to prevent the decline of Ghanaian football.

Speaking on TV3's Mundial live, the 2009 U-20 World Cup winner did not hold back in his assessment of the country's sporting infrastructure.

"When it comes to these kinds of things [hosting of tournaments], we have to invest big to improve facilities. And truth be spoken, our facilities are poor. I'm not going to sit here and pretend like, because I'm a Ghanaian, I wouldn't tell the truth. Our facilities are poor. The teams don't have good facilities," Opare said.

He argued that the lack of quality pitches, modern training equipment, and proper academy structures is actively harming young players.

"I think that we are not taking football seriously. And it's killing the younger generations because that is where we all developed from," he added.

Opare also criticised the current system of youth football, describing it as "a joke" and urging the Ghana Football Association to completely rethink its approach.

According to the former Real Madrid Castilla defender, reviving Ghanaian football starts with a deliberate financial commitment to the foundational levels of the game, specifically targeting local colts (youth) teams.

"They need to encourage the Colts teams. They need to push the money there. They need to make sure that these young ones get the facilities for them to improve," Opare said.

Without this critical pipeline of talent, Opare warned that the decline of the senior national team will only worsen, as the local ecosystem will simply fail to produce high-calibre players.

"Otherwise, the Black Stars is going to keep on suffering, struggling for years to come because we are not going to get the product to supply. And that's the truth," he concluded.

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