DON'T RESTRICT STAKEHOLDERS MEETING TO ACCRA (GRAPHIC SPORTS, PAGE 2)

A former Vice President of the Ghana Football Association, Nana Yaw Owusu, has expressed concern over the use of Accra as a venue for taking major decisions on soccer, saying, “it isolates other stakeholders from other parts of the country who could make meaningful contributions on issues that promote soccer”.
Commenting on a recent meeting organised in Accra by the Ghana League Clubs Association (GHALCA) on how to entice soccer fans to watch matches at the stadia , Nana Yaw Owusu pointed out that the problem cuts across the country, so the venue should not have been restricted to Accra alone.
In an interview with the Graphic Sports when he visited the Kumasi Office of the Daily Graphic, he pointed out that the meeting organised by GHALCA “was a wonderful idea, but my concern is why such an important exercise should be limited to Accra.
“We all know that the problem affects all the league centres, so at least similar exercises could have been organised at the rest of the main centres like Baba Yara, Sekondi and Tamale, among others to give stakeholders within these areas the opportunity to contribute to the exercise”, he noted.
“We have people in this country who are die-hard football lovers who will be willing to contribute their quota to the development of the game if the opportunity will be given to them”, he stressed.
On measures that should be taken to entice soccer fans in the country to the various stadia, he said “the quality of the game should be improved to be able to attract soccer fans, This could only be done if quality players participate in the local Premier League”.
Explaining, Nana Yaw Owusu said “the league is losing attraction because of the continuous depletion of stars, and this emanates from the exodus of players in Ghana”
“Like any citizen in Ghana, players are free to play for foreign clubs, but before leaving, such a player should be made to play in the Premier League for at least three continuous years”.
“I am saying this because players were nurtured in the country, so we should not be denied their exploits before they join foreign clubs”, he advised.
Nana Yaw Owusu said when this becomes a yardstick for local players, “the quality of the game would be improved, and this will naturally attract the fans to watch their local idols, just as they spend much time to watch international competitions.
“Soccer fans in Ghana always spend quality time to watch competitive matches from their homes because the standard there is very high due to quality players who feature in such matches, so if quality players are enticed to play in the local league, fans will troop to the various stadia in their numbers to watch them” he asserted.