In his quest to become the new Ghana Football Association (GFA) president, Nana Yaw Amponsah, owner and bankroller of Division One League (DOL) side, has outlined a number of ambitious projects aimed at restoring the integrity of football in the country.
And key on that agenda will be the introduction of several motivational packages that will curb bribery and other factors to derail the progress of the game as well as embark on a vibrant commercialisation of the sport across the country.
‘’The Integrity of every sport lies in the uncertainty of results and fairplay. When football matches are compromised to the extent that results are known before kickoff, the sport loses its essence and commercial value. We must therefore put measures in place to ensure fairness across board”, he stated.
Outlining his manifesto, Mr Amponsah said mechanisms will be introduced to stamp out referee bribery and corruption, eliminate ‘fixed’ matches and clamp down on hooliganism at the stadiums.
He also pointed out that an FA under his leadership will be driven fiercely towards commercialisation by employing marketing and branding tools to increase spectatorship at the various venues and maintaining a high level of security to guarantee crowd safety.
The manifesto also captured plans to boost the transfer value of Ghanaian players by enrolling the various leagues on digitally acclaimed platforms such as ‘Soccerassociation’, ‘Wyscout’, ‘Instatscout’, ‘Transfermarket’ and others.
On reforms, The Phar Ranger CEO aims to make the Premier League and DOL autonomous within two years, establish an Independent Football Tribunal (IFT) to adjudicate cases, streamline player exodus, abolish officiating fees paid by clubs and scrape the 10 per cent player transfer fees charged clubs for International Transfer Certificates (ITC) among others.
And with an unwavering passion to improve facilities, Mr Amponsah has pledged to construct an ultra-modern training centre and a sports medical facility for all the national teams.
At the regional and district levels, he has penned down plans to resource and equip each RFA and DFA to become direct replicas of the GFA and also drawn up training and educational partnerships with other member associations and the provision of permanent paid jobs for the people within the sport such as technical directors, doctors and youth development coordinators.
He said grassroots football will also be restructured and prevent the exploitation of minors from illegal agents.
He added that, with the sudden upsurge and clamour for women’s football globally, it was important that the popularity of the men’s game can be leveraged to develop the women’s game locally.
As a result, the women’s game under his tenure will earn tremendous support and attention by urging male clubs to adopt female clubs, collaborate with various women groups and the Gender Ministry to promote the game, establish a vibrant sponsorship, branding and marketing team for women’s football.
He is also advocating a minimum wage criterion at the various levels with continuous and flexible opportunities available to coaches to upgrade their knowledge regularly.
He will also ensure players play under good conditions with the establishment of a minimum wage structure for professional players to improve remuneration and to curb the mass exodus of talented stars from the local scene.
In collaboration with the Professional Footballers Association, he hopes to organise financial and post career planning seminars for the players to aid them in their financial decisions and investments while active and called for a policy of always allotting three slots for local players in the main Black Stars to boost their confidence.
He said referees would be on a quarterly integrity workshops and refresher courses which will be supported by a separate sponsorship package for referee activities.
Nana Yaw Amponsah has been the chairman and director of Football at Phar Rangers FC since 2016.
From 2008 to 2018; he was a Licensed Player Agent and intermediary who successfully brokered deals for over 50 Ghanaian players and a 100 across the globe to foreign clubs.
He was adjudged the ‘40 under 40’ Sports Personality of the Year in 2017.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology and Political Science from the University of Ghana, Legon and a Masters Degree programme in Sports Law and Practice from the DE Montford University, UK.
He is currently pursuing a PHD in Sports Leadership at the Concordia University in USA.
His area of expertise includes ; commercial aspects and sports , sports and ethics , sports governance , representing athletes /players , sports regulatory regime and sports rights and ambush marketing .
BY NANA BENTSI ODURO
