Government must save football industry – Woyome

A member of the Parliamentary Committee for Sports has warned that football risk collapsing if the government does not come to the aid of the struggling industry.

The stocks of Ghana football has for the last three years plummeted to its lowest ebb with the sector battling two major crisis in the period.

Just when the leadership of Kurt Okraku steadied the ship and appeared to be sailing to safety after the destructive storm of Anas Aremeyaw’s Number12 documentary, another disaster struck, forcing the FA to shelve its recovery plans.

The FA has for weeks been in negotiations with the government and its agencies for financial support for the industry that is grappling with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nothing tangible has yet come out from those negotiations despite assurances from the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the National Sports Authority.

In an interview with Atinka FM, Kobena Mensah Woyome who is also the MP for South Tongu registered his displeasure with the exclusion of football in the stimulus package for the small scale businesses.

He insisted that football clubs in the country by virtue of their size and contribution to the economy should have benefited from the package.

“I’m a bit surprised because its something we all thought they would sit and consider. If there’s a stimulus package for small scale industries, I want to also believe that we should be able to target industries like this one”.

“We all know how they have suffered two times in the last few years. It’s two times and that’s what makes it interesting. There are professionals in this industry so the government must be able to save these professionals”.