Fix the Ghana Premier League, it is your RESPONSIBILITY | Kafui Dey interviews Michael Oti Adjei

Prepared, Always: A Conversation with Michael Oti Adjei

He was in the stadium in Johannesburg when Asamoah Gyan missed the penalty against Uruguay. He turned his back before the kick because he was too nervous to watch, and knew from the noise that it had gone wide. He had a tear in his eye during the national anthem against Italy in Hanover in 2006. He covered the 2014 Brazil World Cup from a hotel that backed onto the Black Stars' accommodation, filing for the BBC, TV3, and Kickoff simultaneously while monitoring the growing money crisis from a few metres away. He sat through the Anas unveiling of the GFA president with his phone under the table, tweeting live from a room where phones were banned. He has voted in the Ballon d'Or panel for fifteen years. He was there when Ghana first played on the biggest stage and has not stopped working since.

Michael Oti Adjei is a sports journalist and media executive with over two decades of experience across print, radio, television, and digital — and he is the kind of person who arrives six hours before a press conference because he knows the bloggers will be there four hours early.

Carlos Queiroz: The Unveiling

Recording this interview the day after the new Black Stars head coach was introduced to the media, Michael reflects on what made the occasion different from most coaching unveilings. He has sat through coaches who name-dropped because their CV was thin and they needed to command a room. He has sat through coaches who became defensive when challenged. Queiroz walked in on time — which he notes is genuinely unusual — and handled every question with calm authority. When asked whether he was a defensive coach, he did not bristle. He simply said that in his philosophy there is no such thing as a defensive or an offensive coach. He is a winning coach.

The profile speaks for itself: assistant to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, manager of Real Madrid, four World Cup appearances including Portugal's run to the second round of 2010 where they were eliminated by eventual champions Spain, and back-to-back under-20 World Cup titles with Portugal in 1989 and 1991 — the generation of Figo, João Pinto, and the current Benfica president Manuel Rui Costa. He is the highest profile coach Ghana has ever hired. The room was, Michael says, a little star-struck.

His personal assessment: Queiroz is built defensively solid and tactically disciplined, which is precisely the approach that has served Ghana best at every successful World Cup. He hopes it goes well. Talk is still cheap.

What Went Wrong Under Otto Addo

The second Otto Addo era, in Michael's view, should never have happened. The first appointment was always a stopgap — a man who knew the players, was Ghanaian-born, and could navigate a specific two-legged playoff against Nigeria. He did that efficiently. But the warning signs were clear from the beginning.

The most telling sign came at the Nations Cup before the Qatar campaign, when the assistant coach could not attend because Borussia Dortmund would not release him. Assistant coaches are not protected by FIFA's mandatory release regulations. He went to a major tournament without his own second in command because his club football arrangement took priority over the national team. In Michael's view, this alone should have disqualified Otto from any further consideration.

But Ghana qualified for the World Cup, and that qualification obscured everything. The country began measuring all of football management by whether the Black Stars reached a World Cup — ignoring what was happening to the local league, ignoring the Nations Cup failure, ignoring the fact that not qualifying for the Nations Cup for the first time in twenty years was a collapse of extraordinary magnitude. A company dropping from a million dollars in revenue to a hundred thousand and nobody resigns, nobody takes responsibility, nobody says the right things publicly about how serious the failure was.

What Michael believes Otto never grasped was the full complexity of managing a national team: the emotional demands, the need to convince players to be committed, the difference between being a respected scout and assistant within a large technical structure and being the person whose name is on every decision. He was, as Michael describes it, a 50-year-old still making his way up in coaching at the very job that demanded full managerial maturity. And he seemed, at various points, to feel that Ghana should be grateful to have him rather than the other way around.

For World Cup 2026: Success Defined

This World Cup is larger in format. The expanded draw means that getting out of the group stage is harder in spirit but mathematically somewhat more forgiving — the top two from each group qualify automatically, plus a number of best third-placed teams. In theory, a single victory could be enough. Michael's minimum expectation: get out of the group, beat Panama, steal a result from England or Croatia if possible.

If Ghana reaches the round of sixteen, that means five games in total — three group stage plus two knockout. That translates into significantly more prize money beyond the $9 million guaranteed for every participating team, more time in the competition, more global visibility. It would be reasonable success. Anything beyond that would be a serious bonus.

He does not believe the four-month contract will be extended regardless of results. The GFA, he hopes, has learned from the Otto era that clean endings serve everyone.

Preparation: The Foundation of Everything

Michael's professional discipline was formed early and has never changed. In the stadium, he does not chat. He takes notes from the first minute. At halftime he writes a four or five paragraph summary. By the 75th minute he is already drafting his intro. Match reports were due within five to ten minutes of the final whistle during his print years, when the newspaper had to go to offset and a film had to be processed before press. The deadline was not something you negotiated with.

At the BBC, reporting time for an 8 a.m. broadcast is 6 a.m. Call time for stadium coverage at the 2010 World Cup was five hours before kickoff. Sound check, coordination with the main commentator, planning the mix zone rota, assigning who covers the press conference and who covers the players — everything is clockwork.

He learned color coding from watching broadcasters like Mike Costello and John Bennett prepare. Every player's key detail is written, then marked by color so that in real time a commentator can glance at the sheet and remember: this is the goalkeeper who plays for Hassle Folk, the only home-based player in the side. This is the player whose brother is playing for the opposing team. The preparation is not decoration. It is survival.

He tells the journalists he manages a simple rule: if your job is covering the Black Stars press conference, your social media plan, your quote cards, your templates, your reserved spot, all of it must be confirmed days in advance. When bloggers are arriving three to four hours early and journalists walk in as if they own the place, the journalists have already lost the fight. He arrived at the Alisa Hotel at 6:00 a.m. on the day of the Queiroz unveiling. He had been the previous day to map the venue and argue through the access issues with hotel staff. He did not leave until 3:00 p.m.

Germany 2006: The Beginning

He told Kofi Tontoh, then vice president of the Ghana Football Association, that Ghana had to reach the World Cup because Ghanaian journalists had been watching it on television for too long. He did not have accreditation. He did not fully know how accreditation worked. He had covered the World Athletics Championships in Paris in 2003 and had been blown away. He needed to be at a major international event.

He flew into Hamburg, bumped into a Ghanaian immediately, travelled by train to Lübeck where the Black Stars were based, found a cheap hotel across the street from the team. That proximity became the principle for every Black Stars tournament that followed: stay close to the team and never take your eyes off the hotel.

He was in the stadium in Hanover for Ghana against Italy and had tears in his eye during the national anthem. He watched every game of that tournament — against Czech Republic in Cologne, USA in Nuremberg, Brazil in Dortmund — piling into a rented van with a group of journalists coordinated by a Ghanaian man named Paul who had a German driving licence and knew the roads. He did freelance work for the BBC, Joy FM, and Africa Sports throughout. It was one of the best professional experiences of his life.

South Africa 2010: The Penalty

He was in the upper tier of Soccer City for the Uruguay quarterfinal. He was not working that day — he had come as a spectator. He was sitting with lawyer Nana Monday and a few others when Ghana won the penalty in the last minute. He could see the players celebrating before the kick had been taken. He turned his back. He heard the collective sound from the crowd and knew immediately it had been missed.

He was in the mix zone within minutes. The Uruguayan journalists were patting each other. A French journalist friend was in tears. John Mensah came through still visibly moved but stopped to speak. John eventually came out looking like he had been crying, sat with Michael for an interview, and said life goes on. He had not slept. Michael's respect for how John handled that publicly has never diminished.

His view on the narrative around the penalty has always been firm: John had scored both of Ghana's goals in the group stage from the spot. His conversion rate before that kick was one hundred percent. No reasonable coach in the world tells that man not to take the penalty. The glee on Suarez's face was infuriating in the moment, but the logic of what he did is the same as John Mensah hacking down a Nigerian striker to save a goal and getting a red card. He took one for the team. Ghana lost, but the analogy is correct.

Brazil 2014: The Money on the Plane

He covered the Brazil tournament from a hotel five minutes walk behind the Black Stars' accommodation in Natal, filing simultaneously for the BBC, TV3, and Kickoff South Africa. He could feel the tension building day by day — a series of meetings, hotel dissatisfaction, players unhappy with conditions since Miami, everything building slowly toward the moment the story broke.

He was on the team plane from Natal to Brasília and was in the hotel in Ferto City when the bonuses arrived. Players had been paid in cash — appearance fees of around $100,000 per person — and had been carrying it into the stadium and onto the plane in backpacks. The care with which players were holding those backpacks told its own story. Some had trusted friends to hold the money. Others were guarding it personally. It was surreal. The transfer risk, the security implications, the spectacle of it — everything about it spoke to the deep mistrust players had developed toward Ghanaian football officials. They wanted the money in their hands because they did not believe in any other arrangement.

The Boateng-Muntari incident he covered in journalism mode, verifying facts, writing without his opinion, and publishing clearly. What the whole tournament did, he believes, was undo multiple years of work Ghana had done to be considered a serious football nation. It has taken a long time to recover.

Origins: New Town, the Library Board, and Africa Sports

He grew up in a chamber and hall in New Town with his mother, father, older sister, and younger brother. His mother was a trader at Makola selling bags, shoes, and similar goods, and was determined that all her children concentrate on school. During a period when he could not attend school for a term, she solved the problem by buying him books and checking in regularly. That habit became the foundation of everything.

His reading started with sports pages — the back and front pages of newspapers that older people in the house left around. When he was on shift school and his mother went to Makola, she would drop him at the Library Board. He would read for hours, then take a trotro to New Town to start school at twelve-thirty.

His secondary school was Pope John, where he did science — not because he wanted to be a doctor but because he did not want to change course midway. He knew from Form Two that he was going to be a journalist. Science, he says, made him analytical and patient and trained him not to jump to conclusions. Drama and debating were his territory. The library was where you found him.

After Pope John he enrolled at what is now the Ghana Institute of Journalism almost immediately. He wrote for Radio and TV Times to pay his own fees. His cohort was strong — it included the current Deputy Chief of Staff, a senior BBC correspondent, and others who became significant figures in Ghanaian journalism. His most formative lecture came not from his favourite teacher, Professor Fahu, but from Quao, who came in as a visiting professional and explained, for the first time, that journalism could pay per word and that freelancing was a real career. That conversation opened something.

The BBC: How He Got In

He had done an interview with Nii Odartei Lamptey for Africa Sports — a long, detailed piece about his career, his departure from Ghana, how Steven Keshi had helped smuggle him to Anderlecht, his time in Argentina, his son named Diego who died. Michael had written it up for the newspaper but felt instinctively the story was bigger than Ghana. He walked to Tawis Café near Kab's office, found the BBC's email address on the internet, wrote a pitch explaining why Lamptey's story mattered internationally, said he had already written the article, and sent both. They said yes. He did not even chase the payment. The byline was what he wanted.

When the BBC formally advertised for a Ghana correspondent after the previous one relocated, he applied, was shortlisted alongside three others including Morris Ankawa and the late Christopher Poku, went through two rounds of interview with BBC staff who flew in, and got a call a week later. It changed his professional trajectory more than anything else. It gave him status, opened doors, brought resources and tools, exposed him to standards of preparation and accountability that Ghanaian media had not taught him, and placed him at the centre of every major event he subsequently covered.

Building the Career: Africa Sports, Kickoff, Joy FM, TV3

His entry into Africa Sports came through his friendship with the late Tony Forson. He handed Tony an article he had written as if it were a business card and asked him to pass it to the editor. It was accepted. He became a regular contributor and eventually a core part of the newspaper, given responsibilities far beyond what his age would typically suggest. The shine of the editor's reputation opened doors across Ghanaian football for him early.

When he wanted to break into television, he called TV3's sports department from a payphone at Papaya Junction, introduced himself as someone who wrote for Africa Sports, said he could do analysis for their Champions League coverage, got a meeting, went in, and never came off. He became first choice for a significant run of programming.

He got into Joy FM after a visa was denied for a trip to Scotland he had already announced publicly to his friends — the embarrassment of which he admits was spectacular — and he dealt with the emotion by picking up the phone and calling Neil Armstrong, then general manager of Joy FM, and asking for a job. He was hired.

His work with Kickoff South Africa as founding editor for the Ghana franchise introduced him to search engine optimisation, Google advertising, story traffic analytics, and digital content strategy at a time when very few Ghanaian journalists were thinking in those terms. That knowledge became the foundation of his later general management of digital operations at Media General.

On the Anas Exposé

He had prior knowledge. Anas came to his house around 1:00 a.m. the night before the screening at the International Conference Centre. They sat and talked. He saw elements of what was coming. The following day, in a room where phones had been banned, he found a spot and tweeted everything live.

His position on the exposé has always been clear: whatever methodological debates exist about the investigation, the intent of the man at the centre of it was exposed on camera. A football federation president having conversations about how to divert money through intermediaries is not a matter of interpretation. He is satisfied that it was important. He is satisfied it needed to happen. The referee corruption it also exposed had been something journalists had been saying for years without evidence. Now there was evidence. The conversation moved.

What came after — the normalization period, the committee, the eventual elections and the Ketto Kraku administration — he was peripherally involved in, recommending people he thought would be appropriate for the normalization committee when a Senegalese journalist arrived to conduct due diligence. He does not think the normalization was managed as well as it could have been, but it served its purpose.

Commentary and the Ballon d'Or Vote

For the 2010 World Cup, Michael was part of the BBC World Service radio commentary team, brought in under a FIFA-negotiated arrangement that required more African voices on the coverage. He trained alongside Ibrahim Sani and others, learning formal commentary disciplines — preparation, observation, how to dovetail with the main commentator, when to come in and when to hold back, and the colour coding system that keeps broadcasters from having to read full notes in real time.

He commentated on the England versus Germany quarterfinal in Bloemfontein where Frank Lampard's shot crossed the line and was not given — the moment that accelerated the push for goal line technology.

For the Ballon d'Or, he has been on the voting panel since its expanded journalist format began, introduced through a French journalist friend. He votes in the main award, goalkeeper of the year, and coach of the year. His most controversial vote was for Rodri over Vinícius Júnior. He stands by it. He is still receiving comments about it. His most recent controversy was voting for Dembélé over Yamal, which people have attributed to him being a Barcelona fan. He says he is not a fan of any club — only of individuals.

Management Philosophy

He is blunt and he knows it. He tells journalists they will not be great TV presenters if that is what he genuinely believes. His own voice was described as so poor when he started on radio that people told him he would never make it as a broadcaster. He proved them wrong and he is happy for people to do the same to him.

What he cannot tolerate is laziness, lack of adaptability, or the reflexive insistence that there is only one right way to tell a story. He believes a journalist who has witnessed something should be able to stand in front of a camera or microphone and report it clearly, without reading from a script, without an intro-SOT-outro format every time, without needing to sit down and type something before the moment is lost. The basics of journalism — get to the point, make the first line so strong the reader continues, attribute accurately, verify, then verify again — are time-tested principles that did not become obsolete because of Tik Tok. The three-second rule on short-form video is just the opening line of a newspaper article in a new format.

His approach to managing teams has become more calibrated over time. He does not give up ground on talent assessment. He will go to war for young journalists he believes in. He does not allow outsiders to run down members of his team. But he has learned to deliver hard feedback through routes and forms that account for the individual rather than defaulting always to the direct and public approach he was exposed to coming up.

His Mother, His Father, His Son

His father was an accountant who did not have much money but was among the most responsible men he has known. When money was tight and his mother had found a way, his father would run the errand without complaint — taking his sister's fees to school, carrying the items, doing the logistics without needing to be the provider. He did it unashamedly. That lesson in responsibility without ego stayed.

His mother died in January 2010, while he was in Johannesburg on assignment ahead of the Nations Cup. He was in a hotel in Hatfield, Pretoria when his phone rang at 7:00 a.m. South Africa time — 5:00 a.m. in Ghana. He knew from the hour and the caller that she was gone. He changed his flight, came home, buried her. His father had died in 2003, seven years earlier, shortly after Michael returned from his first BBC training in London. He has had complicated feelings about the church since then — specifically about how they treated his father during and after his illness — and has not attended since.

What he learned most from his mother was compassion and sharing. She cooked for area boys. When their neighbourhood flooded she took people in. She bought him books when he could not go to school. She insisted on his reading, took him to the library, pushed him without ever pushing him away from his own instincts. He carries that.

His son, who will turn ten in July, is at the centre of everything he now works toward. He takes him swimming because he does not want him to be 35 before he learns. He takes him to restaurants because he does not want him to feel intimidated anywhere in the world. He puts him in business class once in a while so he knows what it feels like, before going back to economy himself. He is as deliberate about his son's life as he has been about his own career. He is not sentimental about having more children. One done right is what he is focused on.

The Hardest Truth Ghana Football Must Hear

Fix the Ghana Premier League. It is the GFA's problem to solve and they are too fixated on the Black Stars. There is too much corruption. The structural transition from youth to senior team — which has worked brilliantly in the eras that produced results — is broken and needs to be rebuilt deliberately. Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, and Ivory Coast all have active diaspora scouting programs. Ghana does not. The diaspora talent is there in Germany, London, South London, America, and across Europe. It is not being systematically identified and developed. Countries that do this win Nations Cups. Countries that don't get knocked out in the first round.

The minimum expectation now is not a World Cup appearance. It is winning a Nations Cup. Ghana has the players to do it. Ivory Coast when they won their recent Nations Cup did not have a better group of individual players. Senegal won it with players no better individually than what Ghana has available. The difference was structure, management, and purpose. That is what must change.