‘GFA needs new faces to attract sponsors’
A retired footballer, Mr Y.B. Amponsah, has implored the hierarchy of the Ghana football Association (GFA) to freshen the association by bringing on board new faces who have fresh ideas and are very knowledgeable in football.
Advertisement
His call comes barely two weeks after a veteran sports administrator, Fitzgerald Barkers-Woode, alias Nana Fitz, had urged the president of the GFA, Kwesi Nyantakyi, and his executive committee members to resign en bloc to avoid sinking Ghana football further into the deep seas.
According to Mr Amponsah, introducing such ex-footballers and other professionals with keen interest in football would bring new perspectives into the running of the GFA and also enable the FA to organise the local league more professionally and make it more competitive, attractive to corporate bodies.
Referring to the current trend of contesting positions at the FA, Mr Amponsah, who is now a Labour Consultant, said the FA should amend its constitution to enable people outside the realm of football but are more knowledgeable in the game, to come on board.
“Currently, it is perceived that the FA constitution does not allow people outside football to involve themselves in the administration of the FA. It should be amended to ensure that those who are more knowledgeable in football administration take centre stage of running football in Ghana,” Mr Amponsah, who played for the defunct GIHOC Stars, told the Graphic Sports in an interview in Accra last Monday.
“In Ghana, if we consider how football had been managed over the period, overhauling it to make it more transparent and businesslike is long overdue. We cannot have team owners or people affiliated to specific clubs managing the FA and succeeding.
‘’This is because there is a public perception that the FA is biased. To the public, the FA always does things to favour their clubs and therefore compromise the entire interest of the public. Now, a lot of Ghanaians do not value our football anymore,’’ he bemoaned.
Mr Amponsah said in countries like Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, France and United States of America, where football is considered as a serious business, none of their administrators has any affiliation to any club or doubles as club owners.
He was of the view that “though huge sponsorship comes from big corporate bodies in those jurisdictions, the companies are always regulated by external bodies so they do not invest them in projects that would compromise their businesses or in an administration which is not transparent enough.”
“If we change the trend to make the FA more transparent, sponsorship would be easily accessible and big corporate bodies would be eager to sponsor local football, as is being done in South Africa where big banks sponsor football, rugby, athletes and basketball, among other sports disciplines.”