GFA: Poor salaries bane of our clubs

The President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kwesi Nyantakyi, says poor remuneration of footballers in the local league is accountable to their abandoning the league for unpopular destinations in Asia, such as Thailand, Vietnam, among others.

The GFA boss made the observation last Monday at the opening ceremony of a two-day Media and Marketing seminar for Premier/Division One Clubs in Accra.

Mr Nyantakyi, who owns Ghana Premier League side, Wa All Stars, disclosed that clubs were helpless when offers came in for their players from such countries because currently no club in the Ghana Premier League was able to offer a player $1,000 as monthly wage.

He said, "By making our league competitive, it means that we will be able to raise revenues and pay attractive salaries to our players and stem the perennial tide of the exodus to Europe.

“You can’t stop a player from going to Thailand when the offer comes. If you did, the whole village, the chief and the elders will besiege your office the following day to ask why you won’t allow him to go because he will be earning a minimum of $5,000 a month which no club in Ghana can afford.

“These are stark truths and we must confront them”, Mr Nyantakyi stressed.

Mr Nyantakyi charged club representatives present at the seminar to use marketing tools to help make their clubs attractive in order to make the league competitive and raise their revenues.