CONGRESS : The Ghana Football Association (GFA) Extraordinary Congress Brouhaha

The venue for the much anticipated GFA Extraordinary Congress was at the College of Surgeon and Physicians in Accra, Ridge.

Football Stakeholders would meet to deliberate on the approved drafted statutes by Normalization Committee and FIFA. Notable among them were the delegation from FIFA and the past chairmen of GFA, Dr. Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe and Nana Sam Brew Butler.

There was roll call of Club representatives as the names of Clubs were mentioned to confirm their presence.

Soon after that the Normalization Committee Chairman in the person of Dr. Kofi Amoah took to the stage as he eulogized the legendary Baba Yara and the general impact of football as a game. He also express his goodwill for Kotoko and Ashgold who are playing in the CAF Champions league and Confederation Cup respectively.

Dr. Amoah spoke extensively as he basically schooled the audience on the work of the Normalization Committee, the interactions and meetings the NC had with Referees and Captains of the various Clubs, meeting the Parliamentary Select Committee on Sports etc, all toward the proper and wholesome development of football in Ghana

He also stated emphatically that the NC was in Zurich and Egypt for meetings with FIFA and CAF respectively purposely to brainstorm on the statutes and to be abreast with rules and regulations.

He further stressed the importance of the work of the ad-hoc Committees and the training they organized for Referees by inviting Officials from CAF.

Dr. Amoah then lamented on the low patronage of the game, the lack of sponsorships and consistent broadcasting of the games and wished henceforth all that must be remedied if football people would work hard in the interest of all but not the benefit of a selected few.

There was however a meltdown with regards to the new statutes. Right after the Statutes were made known to football people, they sought to make some amendments as the CEO of Ashgold Fred Achempong spearheaded the reps in stating them by means of power point presentation.

However, Luca Nicola, FIFA Head of Member Associations Governance Services had earlier spoken where he made an authoritative statement saying that “These draft statutes are the result of a long consultative process between the NC and FIFA and if members fail to come to an agreement on the approval, there’ll be no elective Congress”. He added that if delegates insist on making changes then the NC will remain on post as FIFA reviews the propositions of the Clubs, pass a judgment on them then a date will be set for an elective Congress again. This was unheard of as you could literally see the registration of displeasure in the countenance of reps and the melee ensued.

The reps ignored NC Chairman’s suggestion that they can accept the drafted statutes for now so that Congress will be adopted but subsequently they can make the amendments. But later they had to eat their humble pie.

A commotion would compel for a 20minutes recess. They know very well that protesting FIFA’s stance sometimes feels like yearning at the moon. So the reps came back from the brake sobered as 115 out of the 123 present voted in support of adoption of the new GFA Statutes.

So finally a roadmap of the election would be drawn in due cause.

Prayer is for the spiritual confirmation and education so a closing prayer was enough to bring proceedings to an end.

By: Tang Shuaib/@tangdeboy