FA sets 2012 for start of player assessment

Beginning 2012, athletes who fail to meet the mandatory medical assessment will not be given licenses to compete in any football competitions organised by the Ghana Football Association.

The Ghana Football Association will introduce medical assessment of all registered players in next year to screen for health risks prior to their participation in the sport.

A medical assessment, the Pre-Competition Medical Assessment - PCMA, has been set up by the GFA in conjunction with Fifa to achieve the objective of addressing the health status of every player and curbing fatalities.

According to consultant Izhar Mahjoub, Ghana is the second African nation after Algeria to implement the F-MARC computerized system which will assess the general physical examination of the heart, lungs, spine, ankles, knees, and hips, as well as blood analysis and a comprehensive cardiac examination of any player.

"It's been a good working experience with the Ghana Football Association. Ghana is ready to implement the system and all is set. The system is very detailed and when completed, all results can be pulled from a central point to help medics at any stadia treat or respond to any injured player with the help of an athlete's medical history," Mahjoub told www.ghanafa.org.

Mahjoub says club doctors and the GFA's medical committee would together have to approve the health status of any player before a license would be granted an athlete to compete.

"The system takes the data of all medical records and it is then encrypted by the programme. If the medical records of any athlete fails to get the approval of the medical committee, the athlete would have his license withdrawn and will not be allowed to compete in any competition."

The programme's feasibility was tested on all players who participated in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.