The Ghana Football Association (GFA) clarified that no decision had been arrived at as yet regarding the fate of the country’s domestic football season.
The GFA President Kurt Okraku said that discussions were ongoing about which action to take since football activities were suspended in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Okraku made the statement when he appeared as a guest on a local show to discuss the effects of COVID-19 on Ghana’s sports industry.
“As we speak, there’s no decision as whether the Ghana Premier League would be canceled or not. We are still in talks,” Okraku said.
Okraku said that the GFA had given itself until the end of June to make a decision and was considering all scenarios, in its engagements with stakeholders.
“I want to call for calm; we shall take a decision in the interests of everybody. We will communicate our decision if we decide to either cancel or truncate the season,” Okraku said.
Okraku said the GFA did not want to jump at the option of cancelling the season and declaring a winner as some countries have done as it had serious ramifications.
“If we are to cancel the league, it will be another trying period for players, clubs, referees and everybody involved in football,” he noted.
“Since 2017, we haven’t played a league and declared a winner, which is a big problem because no sponsor wants to be associated with a product which is consistently inconsistent.”
The socio-economic welfare of footballers and clubs across the world has been seriously affected with Ghana not being an exception. As Okraku admitted that he did not have exact figures on how much revenue clubs stood to lose if the top league was canceled, he appealed for patience as the GFA waits relief for funds.
“We are also waiting for FIFA to fast track the process and get is the Emergency COVID-19 fund. We are expecting two funds from FIFA. The FIFA forward and the FIFA COVID-19 fund,” Okraku said.
Okraku said he sympathized with club owners who still had to pay out salaries even as their revenue streams had been cut off but added that the GFA intended to respect FIFA’s decision not to touch salaries of footballers.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) had previously written to member associations to set a May 5 deadline to decide whether they intend to continue with their domestic season or call a premature end to the campaign.
However, the deadline elapsed with several nations still deciding on the next course of action as governments battle to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A number of African countries have already announced the cancellation of their domestic football seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The nations are: Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, DR Congo, Mauritius and Niger. Kenya’s decision to cancel its season is to be reviewed by a dispute tribunal.
