CEO of Tema Youth FC, Wilfried Kweku Osei, says he is not sure that the nation’s football industry will fully recover from the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic especially as fans may decide to stay away from matches.
The Ghana Premier League has not been in session since March 15 and there Ghana FA has not given any clear pathways for the return of the Ghanaian league and it says a decision will be taken in relation to the future of the local league season on or before 30 June.
In the interim, clubs are experiencing tough financial times as there are no football matches and player transfers which will in bring in revenue from gate proceeds.
Wilfried Osei painted a gloomy picture for league clubs in Ghana in a discussion with Happy FM and GTV Sports Plus and stated that fans were very likely to be afraid of returning to match centres and that would affect the finances of teams.
“When you take a closer took at our situation, it will be difficult for our football to get back to where we left off.
For instance, take someone who was attending matches in the local league and he wants to go and see Hearts vs Kotoko in Accra. His family members will not encourage him to go.
Such things will have an effect on the gate proceeds for the teams because people will not want to get infected by the diseases especially as we seem to be accepting the fact that the disease will be with us for a long time.”
So far, Ghana has recorded 7,307 positive Coronavirus with 34 deaths (as of May 28, 2020).