Normalisation Committee vice chairperson laments lack of focus on welfare of players

Major stakeholders in the game of football in Ghana are playing down the welfare of players who are the main ingredients for success, says Mrs. Lucy Quist, Vice President of the FIFA normalization Committee.

According to her, it struck her as odd that the people who make football happen were not in the least considered in the myriad of representations made to her committee when it gave room for stakeholders to make representations on what the main challenges involving football were.

“Most people who came to speak to us did not mention the players,” she said Monday on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show.

But “the people who make the game are the footballers,” she argued.

Drawing on her business experience, Mrs. Quist said the key to successful business is to first develop a good product. “When you have a product, you ensure that you have a good product. The players are the product of football.”

According to Mrs. Quist, the players, who are the product around which football administration and business are built, are confronted with “contractual issues, developing [players] and the welfare of players.”

As a result, her committee has made the players the focus of their attention and the running theme in every conversation they have with any other stakeholder. “We turn the conversation to the players,” she said, adding that they ask those who appear before them to address how those concerns affect the players.

She has called attention also to fact that issues affecting players are not just limited to the players. What affects players, she argues, also affects their families and those who depend on them.

Mrs. Quist is part of the four-man team appointed by FIFA in August to run the day-to-day activities of Ghanaian football following the dissolution of the Ghana Football Association in June.