Kurt Okraku, the President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), has appealed to Ghanaians for patience as his administration works to tackle the challenges facing the nation’s football landscape.
Okraku emphasized that restoring Ghanaian football to its former glory, as seen over a decade ago, requires time and significant investment.
Highlighting the setbacks caused by the controversial Number 12 documentary, Okraku pointed to it as a major factor contributing to the decline in the standards of the game. During a recent press conference at the U15 Colts Championship in Prampram, he remarked, “I would always want to remind all of us where we have come from. Sometimes we do forget about our yesterday.”
He continued, “We came from a point where the game had been stopped in our country. We came from a period where colts football was dead in our country. We came from a period where we were inconsistent in running our domestic leagues. We came from a period where our national teams were not performing.”
“To fix this, it takes time, it takes patience, it takes the right people, and it takes a lot of investments.”
Okraku emphasized that revitalizing football in Ghana will take time, patience, the right people, and substantial investments. Since the release of the Number 12 exposé, which led to the dissolution of the GFA by the government in 2018, the effects have been felt across the footballing community, contributing to the Black Stars’ failure to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The exposé also had wider implications, resulting in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) suspending several referees involved in corrupt practices.
