Clubs in the Zylofon Cash Premier League say they are being burdened financially by the current freeze on all football-related activities in the country.
The Ghana FA had announced that football activities be brought to a halt after the public airing of the Anas Aremeyaw Anas investigative expose which highlighted corruption in the local game.
On June 12, a High Court issued a ten-day court injunction on the Ghana Football Association and its activities thereby strengthening the freeze on football in the country.
After Asante Kotoko’s statement on Wednesday said they were reeling under financial stress, other clubs seem to be in very similar situations.
“Truly speaking, the freeze on Ghanaian football is affecting the clubs greatly. For us at Liberty Professionals, it is bothering us financially because we must pay all our players.
Once they have signed contracts and these contracts are not ones of a pay-as-you-play nature, we have to pay them no matter what,” said Liberty Profesionals spokesperson Yusif Uthman to Citi Sports in an interview on Friday.
He went on: “The sponsorship inflows are also not enough and there are no gate proceeds to fall on since no matches are being played. The situation is very difficult.”
Dreams FC Administrative Manager, Ameenu Shardow, said that the freeze had caused problems not only in terms of paying players during the inactive period but the break was posing major administrative challenges.
“This is a major, major problem. We are paying player for no work done. I am not sure that employees expect to be paid by their employers for not being productive. That is our challenge now.
In addition, the freeze means that Ghana Football Association cannot function and that has put some of our plans on hold. This is because we have players who are due to travel outside the country and they need documentation from the FA.
Since the FA is not working, these documents cannot be accessed and these players cannot travel to go and meet clubs that are interested in them so that moves can be completed.”
It is uncertain when the freeze will lifted but on Wednesday, the government announced the setting up of a 5-member committee to manage footballing matters in the interim while a way forward was found.
It is expected that the committee, which has Dr. Kofi Amoah, Cudjoe Fianoo, Eva Okyere, Abedi Pele and Rev. Osei Kofi as members, will find ways of restoring normalcy and sanity to the local game after its reputation took some damage after the airing of the Anas expose in the first week of June.
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By: Nathan Quao/citifmonline.com/Ghana
