Augustine Arhinful
Board Member of the Professional Footballers Association of Ghana (PFAG), Augustine Arhinful has disclosed that the body has yet to receive any form of complaint from Ghana Premier League players as regards being ‘forced’ to accept salary cuts.
With the CoronaVirus pandemic putting many industries in dire financial circumstances, football clubs especially those in mainstream Europe have had to resort to salary cut measures to mitigate their financial burden. In effect, clubs like Dortmund, Barcelona, Juventus et al have all successfully implemented salary cut measures.
With no end in sight in relation to the CoronaVirus outbreak in Ghana, local clubs have been contemplating activating this option to mitigate the financial implications of football activities grinding to a halt.
The successful implementation has however been bottlenecked by the approach taken by these clubs. The likes of Kotoko, AshGold, Elmina Sharks have all had issues with activating such an option.
Players of Asante Kotoko kicked against a salary reduction proposal, while some Ashgold and Elmina Sharks players have denied any knowledge of such an arrangement with their clubs despite their salaries being slashed.
However, the PFAG (the body that represents the welfare of local based Ghanaian professional footballers) say they are yet to be officially made aware by clubs or players on the matter.
Board Member Augustine Arhinful told Light FM, “No club has reported to PFAG in line with players’ pay cut issues. We work in collaboration with the clubs and players so issues should be addressed for the necessary steps to be taken”
He quizzed why local clubs are rushing to explore the option of salary cuts when existing circumstances makes it unsuitable to a terrain like Ghana.
“Most of the clubs in Europe with stable economy aren’t observing pay cut so why do we rush in implementing pay cut on the players. Some players take minimum wages as low as GH300.00 so how do you want them to survive”
Augustine Arhinful has stressed that “there should be the need for an understanding or mutual agreement before anything of that sort else the players can take them to court”.
