Kurt Okraku stands out in Presidential debate with concrete solutions for Ghana football

One thing that stood out from Monday night's Ghana FA Presidential debate was the practical solutions offered by leading candidate Kurt Okraku to solve the current problems bedevilling the game in the country.

For the first time in the history of Ghana football presidential aspirants were grilled over their plans for the game which revealed the real qualities of those involved.

Kurt Okraku, Fred Pappoe, Nana Yaw Amponsah, Amanda Clinton and George Mensah were all put to the test with George Afriyie absenting himself because of a business trip to Turkey.

While some of the contestants focused on bringing out problems of the game, what was lacking in most of them was the solutions offered.

The problems of Ghana football are the corruption, standard of the leagues, refereeing, player welfare, hooliganism, colts football, live European football on television and player exodus.

Pappoe, a former vice president of the GFA, was composed with his straight and short answers given his experience at the top level.

Another person who impressed is Amponsah who offered textbook solutions like putting the data and statistics of players on stats agencies like Wyscout or Instat.

However the plans of most of the candidates regarding the real problems of the game was not clear or practical bar what Okraku offered.

Okraku proposed the setting up of sports policing unit within the Ghana Police for officers to be trained to deal specifically with football policing to help curb hooliganism.

The catch-them-young referees policy from the age 14 will ensure comprehensive training for referees before they reach the top level. The young refs will be used for colts football which would lead to the abolishing referees' fee in colts matches. The early warning system will be deployed to spot cases of fixed matches.

For the leagues Okraku said the product must be rebranded along with aggressive marketing to bring revenue for clubs, while scheduling for matches must be considered to avoid clashes with European leagues.

On player exodus he insisted that creating the best conditions for the clubs to generate more revenue, teams in Ghana would be able to hold onto players a lot longer.

He added that the welfare of the players in the league will be top of his immediate agenda with the enrolment of all players on the NHIS scheme to take care of illness and injuries.

On the national teams front, he suggested that the GFA must continue partner government while expanding the revenue base to support the efforts of government.