Allow independent body to run Ghana Premier League – Mark Noonan

Accra Hearts of Oak Chief Executive Officer Mark Noonan has proposed for a professionally independent body to run the Ghana Premier League.

The American believes the Football Association’s continuous meddling in the affairs and running of the Ghana Premier League has led to a slow growth of the top flight despite the abundance of exciting players in the country.

The quality of the Ghana Premier League has deteriorated in recent years with the FA at the center of the blame for its consistent focus on national teams at the detriment of the nation’s top flight.

The Ghana Premier League Board, the body mandated with the administrative running of the league continue to operate under the directives of the Ghana Football Association Executive Board.

Calls by many stakeholders of the game to have the league management body separated from the FA have fallen on deaf ears, and this, Noonan believes, is as a result of self-interest and lack of transparency.

In an exclusive interview with sports journalist Saddick Adams, Noonan said the best practices and globally accepted models of running the league must be adopted here.

“We need somebody that is incredibly independent, a great business operator, a good politician and consensus builder to lead the league”, Noonan said

“I do believe the league and the FA should be separated but connected in other words”,

“The FA will have an important role to play. Working from CAF and FIFA and organising teams, FA cups, grassroot football and player registration”,

“There is always a good model to adopt like the US model, the German model and English Premier League that we need to take into consideration.”

“From what I can tell self-interest and transparency has been the order of the day and perhaps there were people in position s without the confidence to operate”,