GFA Medical C’ttee to adopt strict safety measures

The Chairman of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) Medical Committee, Dr Adam Baba, has given assurance that strict measures would be put in place to ensure player safety in domestic competitions.

He said imlementation of such measures was the surest way to help improve the health of players who feature in domestic competitions.
The experienced medical practitioner believes education and training of medics are the two important areas that need urgent attention.

“We will have to start from the internal arrangement. By internal arrangement I mean our local league. What we intend to do is at least to organise two seminars for handlers, masseurs, physiotherapists or the doctors of the Premier League clubs,” Dr Baba said in an interview with the GFA media team.

Assessment of players
Dr Baba also stressed the need to subject players to proper medical scrutiny before competitions.

“One pressing issue that has been going on for years is what we call the pre-competition medical assessment (PCMA) of the players. It’s mandatory by FIFA for all clubs to undergo it before they engage footballers; it’s mandatory.

“If a player is to go out (abroad), normally, teams would ask for his medical report which we don’t have. Is it the PCMAs that we normally fill?” he questioned.

Mandatory tests
“Our first priority will be education. The other thing is to really emphasise on the PCMAs. Before the league starts, it should be ensured that all participating clubs do it and do it well because before you recruit a player, he has to undergo a medical examination and a fitness test.

“But all these are just brush it; once he is playing somewhere, he comes and we just take the forms and get a doctor to sign.”

“So what we shall do is to audit the PCMAs because this thing must be done for future purposes. We don’t know, any accident can occur and the international federation would want to know what he went through medically before you allow him to participate in the competition.

If we fail to produce it, we might be penalised,” the former Black Stars team doctor added.

The GFA Medical Committee, which has Dr Percy Annan and Dr Kofi Ablorh as members, has been very busy advising the federation on important decisions amidst COVID-19 and assisting the government of Ghana in getting the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence at Prampram ready to be used as an isolation centre.