FEATURE: Whither Ghana football?

The probable question on the minds of lovers of Ghana football, perhaps, is what is happening to our football? Akin to this question is the fate and destiny of our players and their future.

The growth and development of our football has been seriously disturbed by forces beyond the control of our footballers and their handlers. As for our referees, one can conclude that they are part of the problem, especially when one considers the Anas Number 12 investigative piece.

But what about our players who are just in the house rotting away and adding numbers to their ages? Footballers value the youthful period of their careers. Their ability and financial worth, to a large extent, is influenced by their ages.

Nobody knows how long the much unwelcome COVID-19 will be with us. Indeed, we are being sensitised to accept and learn to live with the pandemic as we live with other diseases. And football associations and their governments in other jurisdictions have devised ways and means to co-exist with the pandemic.

Our economy is such that unless the government intervenes on behalf of sports, we will continue to grumble, gossip and bemoan. Fact is, government after government has relegated our sports and its related activities to the bottom of our budgets.

This is wrong and only portrays the lack of knowledge about the real economic, social and health importance of sports in the socio-economic development of our nation. The youth of this country are in the majority of the citizenry. Most of them are idle and unemployed, but most of them are eager to engage themselves in various sporting activities.

As a nation we need to invest in them. The devil, they say, finds work for idle hands.  

Aside from usefully engaging our youth in sporting activities, sports greatly enhances the economy. Limiting this discussion to football alone, we do not have to go far to imagine the financial benefits that accrue to the country.

Indeed, if we should ignore the economic gains of our football, the social and health benefits are enormous and immense. As a young graduate from the Ghana Institute of Journalism, I decided to become a referee because I wanted to continue to associate with my passion for football and also avoid being idle, especially on weekends. It really paid off as even at an advanced age, I continue to derive a lot from becoming a referee.

I am not active and I have long dropped and hung my whistle, but I still gain from the opportunity and decision I made in my youth.

There are a lot of our youth who engage in many social vices because they have nothing else to occupy themselves with. The government must find the required funds to develop and maintain our sports, especially football. The dividends are great and rewarding.
Our football must not be allowed to collapse and die.