OPINION: Ministry Of Youth And Sports Vrs Ghana Football Association
By: Saeed A. Faruk/Wa
Me, I like football. In fact, I love the game. Only that, I sometimes don’t have time to watch my National Team and my favourable Clubs play. I love the Black Stars. My saddest day ever since I started watching the game was when Ghana lost to Côte D’ Ivoire in the CAN finale in the last tournament. I could not eat. Currently, the Ayew brothers, are my most admired players. I like John Boye but for his lust for money which he could not hide in Brazil.
Wa All Stars FC and Accra Hearts of Oak SC are my clubs. When there is a clash, I support the home team. For this season, wherever they meet, Wa All Stars FC has my support. I want the club to also hold the record of winning the local league. May Allah almighty make it so. For the foreign leagues, Chelsea is my club and my pal Dodoo Sadat but Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan have my support. For them, wherever they clash, I support my CHELSEA. It’s unconditional. No matter the form.
There is some turbulence between the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) and the Ghana Football Association (GFA) which has caught up with the game lovers in the country. That is good. The unfortunate thing I don’t want to rear its ugly head, which is however building up, is putting political inferences into it. At least, I heard someone suggest that on Daily Rant on TV3 New Day. The person said the Minister’s action might be because the government wants to save money for campaigns. Such garbage, thrown out there to pollute the minds of fanatics of the game and incite them against the government.
What is the issue at hand? According to media reports, the Minister is reported to have said the foreign based players should pay for their own air tickets to come and play. His reason is that, the ministry has no money for that. He suggested that local players be used for the game and his reason for that too is that, the outcome of the game is inconsequential. Ghana has qualified already.
What do we Ghanaians want from the footballers? What do we want from the GFA?
The footballers should not pay tax but taxpayers money is used to pay them? Are they the only patriotic people in this country? As a teacher, I daresay I’m more patriotic because I’m training generations to handle the affairs of this country rightly in the future. I can die from hazards of work just as many others and the the footballers too. Tax from labourers are used to pay them and the apology of an argument is that, they are been patriotic and can die as a result.
Paying for their air tickets too, people are talking. Who pays the T & T for the labourers to go to work on a daily basis for the progress of the country. They -the labourers- are called to duty daily and are paid monthly. Even so, a game’s allowance for a player is more than the annual salary of the labourer. Yet one pays for his T & T to duty and tax is deducted from his pay but the other is asked not to pay.
I’m tempted to agree that we indeed talk a lot in Ghana.
