Former Chairman of the Ghana League Clubs Association (GHALCA), Joseph Yaw Appiah, has accused the leadership of the Ghana Football Association of suppressing freedom of speech of the association.
Speaking in a yet-to-televised Prime Take interview with Muftawu Nabila Abdulai, Mr Appiah described the Kurt Okuraku-led Ghana FA as a selfish, close-circuit group which gags members from expressing their views.
“The GFA is a now self-centred, closed-circuit [group]. They are self-centred because whatever they say, nobody can challenge it,” he said on Prime Take with Muftawu Nabila Abdulai.
“When you sit down and watch the things going on, at times, you become sad. Why is it that when you go to Congress, you don’t allow people to talk? Suppressing people. When you talk, they’ll call you to the Ethics Committee,” he added.
During Kurt Okraku-led administration first ordinary session of Congress, he vowed to protect the sanctity of the FA and its products, calling on members to behave well.
Appiah says, you can only protect the image of the association by doing the right things.
“You need to protect the FA but do well. Do the things people won’t talk about. Look at officiating, the league, the performance of the Black Stars, and the performance of the national teams. Nothing is going well, and you say people shouldn’t talk? If you don’t want people to talk, do what is right,” he stated.
“Now, I understand if you want to go the office, the processes you’ll go through [you’ll be discouraged]. It is an Office, a public office. So if I have a suggestion for you, do I have to go through that process before I give you suggestion?
“You open up for people to advice you, for people to talk, but now everybody is afraid to talk. The team managers are afraid to talk because if you talk, your team will go on relegation,” he alleged.
Mr Appiah claims his club, Bofoakwa Tano was relegated because a board member, Yaw Boateng Gyan spoke about the ills of the FA.
“My team, Bofoakwa, went on relegation, and we all saw it. We talked, Yaw [Boateng] Gyan spoke and we were hauled before the Ethics Committee.
“You know the sort of poor officiating that we had and we were eventually relegated.”
He described the current state of the country’s most loved sport as bad.
“At times, we feel sad that our forefathers, Antwi Gyamfi, the late Mawusi Daker, the late Kwadwo Kwakye, the late Bentum, Nana Butler, the late [MND] Jawula. The effort that they put in to bring Ghana football to limelight, they sacrificed a lot for Ghana football, and now see what we have.
“During our time, were not taking anything. We were taking 10 cedis allowance and my friend Acheampong said we should increased it to 15 cedis and we told him it’s a sacrificial job, if you won’t do, go. Now they take monthly allowance. Where in the world have you seen board members taking regular payment in addition to the allowance that they take?” he quizzed.
Okraku’s tenure as GFA president has come under severe criticism due to the historical lows that have been recorded under his regime and the perceived fallen standards of Ghana Football at the various levels.
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