‘Intolerant’ Kurt Okraku sidelining ‘competent’ football people, hounding out GFA staff – George Afriyie

Defeated GFA presidential aspirant, George Afriyie has sent an epistle to the President of the association, underscoring the need for unity among the persons in the football circles.

Afriyie on Tuesday issued a statement which he claims to be a response to some comments Kurt Okraku made on Joy FM.

Kurt Okraku in defending his alleged infiltration of the FA with friends and cronies said that ‘no one wins an election and work with his enemies’.

His comment rattled the camp of some football personalities who have expressed their displeasure with the use of the term ‘enemies’ in the statement.

On Tuesday, George Afriyie issued a statement accusing Kurt’s administration of intimidating some staff of the FA and also persecuting some of them.

He alleged that Kurt’s inability to tolerate opposing views is a reason some people were given no roles in his administration.

“It has now become clear that some very seasoned, competent and qualified administrators were out of the vehicle of our football transformation due to their openness to divergent views and declaration of support for other candidates during the elections”.

“Meanwhile, some highly competent and experienced staff members of the Association are being cowed into submission and in some cases horned out completely. This is not good for our football development”.

But the newly appointed Communications Director of FA, Henry Asante Twum has denied those allegations.

“The response by the FA president was not in direct reference to any individual. I think the issue is being over-stretched. Let’s look at the appointments that have come up in the last few months and juxtapose it to what the FA president said. You may think the word enemy is not the best but I’m not sure that’s exactly what he wanted to say”.

“I think this administration has been very good in putting certain people on some of the committees. For instance, Liberty Professionals before the elections were 100% behind George Afriyie but today the MD of Liberty is serving on two committees. Kotoko declared their 100% support for George Afriyie but today George Amoako is the chairman of the Black Stars Management Committee…”.