Playing football behind closed doors will be difficult – Sports Minister

Clubs will have to spend as much as GHC 60,000.00 in order to honor a single game and believes it is a cost our local clubs cannot bear...

Hon Isaac Asiamah

Ghana’s Youth and Sports Minister, Honorable Isaac Kwame Asiamah, has reiterated that resuming the football league amid the Covid-19 pandemic will be difficult.

The Minister who is also MP for Atwima Mponua claims clubs will suffer should football resume at this moment because they do not have the financial muscle.

He said, clubs will have to spend as much as GHC 60,000.00 in order to honor a single game and believes it is a cost our local clubs cannot bear.

Addressing a press conference at the Ministry of Information on Wednesday, June 3rd the Minister said:

“The figure that came out from the National Sports Authority (NSA) was about GHC 60,000 per match. That is a major challenge”

He asked, “How do we disinfect all the stadia, the hotels, because the players sleep there? How do we test all these players? In our environment, is it possible to play football without our supporters?”

The Ghana Premier League has been suspended since March after Government imposed restrictions as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

There has been a lot of pressure on Government to allow football to start after the restrictions on social gatherings were eased on Sunday, 31st May. Although some individual and non contact sports were allowed to commence, football was excluded because it is a contact sports.

Mustapha Hadji