GFA's structure is a disincentive to our football - Alhaji Raji

Accra, July 17, GNA - Alhaji Alui Raji, the Accra representative of Sekondi Eleven Wise has identified the current three-tier structure of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) as one of the factors militating against the development of the game in the country.

Making his contribution at an open forum on football organised by the Ministry of Youth, Education and Sports and the National Sports Council at the Hospitality Centre of the Accra Sports Stadium on Wednesday, Alhaji Raji said the present system where 38 members of the Executive Council supervise the activities of a five member management who are also members of the council is simply not right.

He said the present system makes it too cumbersome for simple decisions to be taken since it has to be taken back and forth before any consensus could be reached even in situations where decisions had to be taken promptly.

The GFA structure is made up of the Congress at the apex, which consists of all stake holders in the game and it is the highest decision making body and next to it is the Executive Council that is made up of representatives of the league clubs and other identifiable groups who supervise the work of a five member management team consisting of two nominees from government of which one acts as the chairman.

Alhaji Raji said the present system has created a lot of hypocrites in football circles who just manipulate loopholes in the bureaucracy to entrench themselves in positions where they do virtually nothing. He said our present system where you have two powerful men at the head of the Executive Council and the management board all performing basically the same functions creates a power struggle whenever the two have a difference in opinion.

Alhaji Raji suggested the dissolution of the Management Board and the Executive Council and the establishment of 12-member body that would report directly to Congress to run the day-to-day activities of football in the country.

"Such a system would expose those who are not performing but who for their links always find themselves in football associations." He said until the present system is done away with, there would not be any meaningful forward strides in our game.

Alhaji Raji said to him, the decay has continued because the structure on which our football has been built is defective and until it is changed, Ghanaians should not expect any thing positive from the game. He said, "There is nothing else that is needed to resurrect our football other than changing the way we do things."