Here is what happened when Kurt Okraku 'clashed' with the parliamentary sports committee

The President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kurt Okraku, debunked certain allegations leveled against his outfit when he met the Parliamentary Select Committee on Sports on September 30, 2024.

He refuted assertions that the FA manipulates national team coaches in terms of the selection of players, adding that any coach who allows that to happen will be sacked if caught.

The FA president also chided the Save Ghana Football demonstrators for failing to engage the GFA leadership over their grievances rather than taking to the streets to protest.

Here are the six things Kurt Okraku said concerning his tenure in office as the GFA president:

1. Transparency: I have been in office for close to five years. Our books are public, we have been audited by CAF and FIFA for five years continuously. We are the most transparent sporting entity you can think about in Ghana. We have worked closely with the Ministry of Youth and Sports on all fronts.

2. National Team Coaches' Salaries: Sellas Tetteh and other youth team coaches who won trophies in the past were not paid salaries. They were not on contract; they were paid per diems and tournament-related bonuses. In recent years, there have been cries for coaches to be paid on permanent contracts. We have a blend of coaches who are on permanent contracts and those on tournament-related contracts; that is our system.

3. Player Selection Influence: If I hire a coach who expects me to select players for him, I will fire that coach because that is not the kind of coach we want to work with. Black Stars players are selected by the technical team of the Black Stars, led by the current coach Otto Addo.

4. Referees' Salaries: Per regulation from FIFA, CAF, and others, referees are to honor the matches before it is calculated over the period and they are paid in arrears. So the referees pre-finance and get reimbursed afterward.

5. Save Ghana Football Demo: Ordinarily, I would not react because a lot of the people who put this together are people who work with us and have direct access to the leadership of the FA. They had so many channels, not to create the atmosphere they created. If the group had been patient, they would have noticed that the concerns were being taken care of.

6. National Team Budget: The government of Ghana does not pay monies to the FA accounts or directly to the GFA; every money connected to national team campaigns is paid directly to the Ministry of Youth and Sports. I can’t answer questions on the budget because I don’t control them.

SB/EK