Posted by General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Prosper Harrison Addo has reacted to recent comments made by Board Member of Hearts of Oak, Vincent Sowah-Odotei that the betPawa Premier League is dead.
Giants Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko have in recent months experience low attendance in their games, a thing which has become a talking point in the Ghanaian football circles.
Wading into the subject, Vincent Sowah-Odotei who’s a board member of Hearts of Oak stated that it would be difficult to promote the league, describing it as a dead product.
“I have been saying this for a very long time: football must be entertaining,” he said, as reported by Pure FM.
“Our game is not fit for purpose.” You cannot force people to come and watch a game that is dry and not exciting.
“People have other competing interests, but they still love football, so it is up to the regulator of the game to sit up and come up with regulations that will ensure that our game is competitive.”
“I know it is very challenging, but we must change the narrative.” The lack of people at the stadium is not a new thing because it has been happening for the past 15 years. We have to address it, but if we don’t, it will affect the game negatively, and to me, it is the responsibility of the FA.
“You can’t promote a dead product.” “We are doing our best, but football is entertainment,” he added.
Reacting to the comments, GFA General Secretary, Prosper Harrison Addo said; “I saw somebody write that Ghana football is dead, and I just smile because it’s not attendance at one match or low patronage of our games that determine the health of football in a country. The match is not only about attendance.
“There are so many parameters FIFA looks at when it comes to the health of football, some of these are your referees training, coaches education, youth development, and the number of national teams available together with the games they play,” Prosper Harrison Addo said.
He continued: “I know there have been complaints about pitches, but we have spread ourselves up for games to be played everywhere there is a team. We can’t play them at some selected venues as the Media says because the community and the teams will not agree. We are better than others but also below the developed countries.
“We can’t play the EPL standard now since the men for the job are unavailable, we just have to train them gradually,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Ghana FA is in consultation with other stakeholders to make sure the situation becomes a thing of the past.