Sports News of Saturday, 17 January 2015
Source: DailySoccerGhana.com
Retired Ghana defender Sam ‘Foyoo’ Johnson insists the GFA’s inability to make it mandatory for Premier League clubs to pay their players an acceptable minimum wage is because the leadership of the nation’s football governing body is flooded with club owners, who first seek to protect their interest.
Most of the Ghana FA Executive Committee members including FA Boss Kwesi Nyantakyi, George Afriyie, Randy Abbey, Fred Pappoe, Moses Armah just to name a few, are either owners or members of the Management or Board of some local league club, yet have failed to implement policies to improve the living standards of locally based players.
The average Ghanaian home-based footballers has lost the desire to continue to ply their trade in the domestic top flight due to the meager sums paid to them as salaries, leading to a rise in the player exodus.
“When you go to the GFA, you’ll notice that every Executive has a club. They have the ideas to improve the Premier League but they cannot implement all policies that will improve the league because some of them will not go in their favor,” Johnson told Accra-based radio station Hot 93.9FM.
“They (GFA) can introduce a minimum wage rate that will improve the local league and quality players will stay but they won’t. A local club can’t pay a player $50 and tell the footballer not move to a foreign side that is ready to pay $500,” the ex-Fenerbache and Anderlecht back-liner added.