Synchronising GPL with European season will be difficult – PLB

The vice president of the Premier League Board (PLB), the body charged with running the Ghana Premier League (GPL), George Amoako, has said it will be difficult synchronising the Ghanaian football league calendar with that of Europe’s league because of various cases of litigation that characterise the end of the football season in the country.

The GPL was previously in sync with top European leagues. In recent times however, the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, among others, start their season ahead of the domestic league, which affects local clubs in relation to player exports.

Speaking to Class Sports, Mr Amoako said: “We used to have a situation where our league was in sync with that of Europe but that isn’t the case anymore. Several cases of litigation that came up at the end of previous seasons and start of new seasons have dragged us to the state in which we are now. As we speak, synchronisation will be very difficult to achieve.”

In his opinion the solution to achieving synchronisation will be to start next season’s GPL as early as possible.

He stated: “What we can do is to start next season as early as possible but we also know we have mandatory conditions we need to meet. We need to give a one-month rest period and also a month’s pre-season. So, as far as the PLB and the regulations are concerned, the earliest we can start the 2016/17 Premier League season will be mid-December.”