Coronavirus: It will cost each GPL club GHC60k to play a match - Sports Minister

Each Ghana Premier League game will cost GHS 60,000 for testing players, and paying for all precautionary measures, according to Sports Minister Isaac Asiamah.

Some Club owners and stakeholders of the game have been calling for the return of football after two Months.

President Akufo Addo on Sunday eased up restrictions on Sporting activities by allowing some non-contact sporting disciplines to resume training.

However the ban on contact Sports such as football is yet to receive the greenlight from President and the Sports Ministry.

In a bid for the resumption of Football in the country amid the Coronavirus pandemic, the Sports Ministry are putting in measures to prevent the spread of the virus, this the Minister says would cost more than half a million cedis.

“We have had several engagements on the way forward of our football, I charged the directyor of the NSA boss to look at even playing it in an empty stadium across the country and the figure he quoted is a huge challenge,” he said in a COVID-19 press briefing.

“Is not only about going to play but putting in place measures to observe all this precautionary measures. How to get the players at a hotel and how to also disinfect all the stadiums across the county. Not only that, testing is key, we need to test each player. And in our environment is it possible to play football without supporters?

“It is a major challenge so this are the issues we are considering. The figure which came out from the NSA is about GHC60,000 per a match, and this is huge. For me is not the matter of the money, it is about the lives of our footballers, how do we ensure that they are safe. So is an issue we are still resolving.

Clubs are struggling to settle salaries of players leaving players with no option than to accept a pay cut.