Ghana International, Fatau Dauda has appealed to the new Ghana Football Association President and his executives to ensure that players in the Ghana Premier League receive a basic salary of GH2000.
According to Dauda who has had the privilege of playing in the more financially rewarding South African and Nigerian leagues, such an amount is capable of making local talents stay, stopping the player exodus and ultimately make the Ghana league exciting.
“I know that in Ghana the majority of the clubs are owned by individuals and it is important to commend those individuals because trust me it is not easy to run a football club. They (the club owners) are trying their best and we know how hard things are. I am not interested in talking about politics but we all know things are tough. However, I think in Ghana a young player in a team should be able to earn at least GH 2000, while more senior and experienced players can earn about GH500. When we do this, I believe players will be more willing to stay and not travel to other African countries to look for money.”
In the last couple of years, a lot of good talents have left the shore of Ghana mainly because they don’t earn enough to make earns meet playing in the Ghana League. Unconfirmed reports suggest that players earn as low as GH300 in some Premier League teams.
The new FA President, Kurt E.S Okraku has promised to revamp Ghana football, particularly the domestic league after campaigning and winning the elections on the theme “Igniting Passions, Creating Wealth for All.”
To achieve that objective the FA President and his Executive Council recently named a seven-member Club Licensing Committee ahead of the new football season.
The Committee is chaired by an economist and former sports journalist, Dr. Kwame Baah-Nuakoh, who is also the General Manager, Sustainability at Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
Other members of the Club Licensing Committee are: George Ankomah Mensah (Vice-Chairman), Professor Joseph Kwame Mintah, Mike Bonsu, Mavis Amanor, Rev. Emmanuel Addotey and Joseph Addo.
The functions of this body will be to vet the licence applications of clubs to ensure compliance with legal, administrative, finance, technical, medical and security requirements of the provisions of the GFA Statutes and the GFA Club Licensing Regulations before issuing licences to clubs.
