The GFA Saga

By Korsi Asiseh

Our football is suffering. And the reason is simple: football people — the club owners and their management — are not bold enough to effect change when something is going wrong.

That is not to say a few do not have dissenting views. But at any point in time, the Ghana Football Association president, Kurt Okraku, is so powerful that not many can stand up to him. If you dare, your investment goes down the drain. So they play it safe.

The president plays a manipulative game that always gives him the upper hand.

Do you recall the interim committee that was set up to draw a new constitution that gave any GFA president just two terms? This current president, through his influence, got members to vote to change it.

I really don’t blame the GFA president much. I blame the GFA constitution. It gives their president too much power.

Voting is influenced by money, and the president always has lots of it to influence voting in his favour. This was the trend under Kwesi Nyantakyi.

The whole game is played in such a way that they are able to support most of the members in various ways, so these people become his die-hard followers who will defend him even to the point of death. The reason is simple: they are indebted to him.

The evidence is hiding in plain sight. The two-term limit was not accidental. It was a direct response to the Nyantakyi era. Yet it was voted away. That single act tells you everything about how the system works.

Money is the engine. The president has access to resources individual members do not, and he uses them to build loyalty. Indebted people do not ask hard questions. They defend him even when the evidence is damning.

So I do not put all the blame on the president. Any reasonable person placed in a structure that gives them that much power, with no real checks and no consequences, will eventually use it. The constitution is the real culprit.

That is where government comes in.

If the GFA insists it is accountable only to FIFA, then it should also look only to FIFA for money. Government should attach firm conditions to any public funding: transparency, audited accounts, term limits, and real accountability. If those conditions are refused, the funding should be withdrawn.

We are not getting value for money. And continuing to pay is not support — it is complicity.

But let me add this. The problem is not unique to Ghana. It is a FIFA-wide issue. FIFA’s own statutes protect member associations from government interference, which sounds noble but in practice shields powerful presidents from local accountability. So government pressure has to be smart, legal, and coordinated with reform-minded stakeholders.

Second, the most powerful lever is not government money alone — it is the clubs themselves. If the majority of Premier League clubs organised, they could force constitutional reform through congress. The reason they don’t is the patronage system. Breaking that requires collective action and protection — perhaps a clubs’ union with legal backing.

Third, term limits matter, but they are not enough. You also need independent auditing, a genuinely independent electoral commission for GFA elections, and transparency in how sponsorship and FIFA development money is spent. Otherwise, a new president simply inherits the same machine.

In short: the GFA constitution is the disease. Money is the transmission mechanism. Government funding without conditions is the enabler.

Withdrawing or conditioning that funding is legitimate and necessary — provided it is done carefully to avoid FIFA sanctions that would hurt the players and fans most.

Our football deserves better.
By Korsi Asiseh