Kumado heads three-man committee to submit proposals

Accra, April 4, GNA - The Ministry of Education and Sports has constituted a three-man committee chaired by Professor Kofi Kumado, a constitutional law expert and former management member of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), to submit proposals on its behalf to be incorporated into the one being drafted by the GFA restructuring committee set up by Congress a couple of weeks ago.

The ministry's committee, which also includes Mr Ben Koufie, former Chairman of the GFA Management Board and Mr Ace Ankomah, a tax lawyer, would defend the proposals before the restructuring committee, Congress, the highest decision making body of the GFA and FIFA.

Congress, a couple of weeks ago formed a five-member committee headed by Mr Kwesi Nyantekyi, Vice Chairman of the GFA, to forward a roadmap that would effect the needed changes in the GFA to meet FIFA three-month deadline.

The committee subsequently wrote to the Ministry, a major stakeholder in sports in the country, on Monday, April 11, to submit proposals in order to present to FIFA a more solid draft on a new-look GFA in conformity to other associations worldwide.

The Ministry's proposal were to have got to the Committee by Tuesday, April 19, but O. B. Amoah, a Deputy Minister of Education and Sports, said it was asking for more time to enable a comprehensive work to be done by its Committee.

He said the ministry could have done it all alone but decided to the set up the Committee to do a thorough work, taking into cognisance the GFA's own statutes vis-=E0-vis those of FIFA while not forgetting Ghana's new Sports Bill which is yet to be passed.

The deputy minister noted that in attempt to satisfy FIFA's requirement, care must also be taken of the current Sports Bill SMD 54 and the new bill, which is an epitome a of how modern sports are run. He said it was possible for FIFA to reject Ghana's proposal if it was at variance with "our own existing sports bill", a problem facing neighbouring Nigeria at the moment.

It is expected that the GFA restructuring committee would submit its draft proposal to Congress by Thursday but Mr Amoah expressed the hope that the committee would hold on for some time for more diligent work to be done.

FIFA ordered an overhaul of the statutes of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) in a letter to Mr Kofi Nsiah, GFA General Secretary on Monday, March 23.

It said the architecture of the GFA statutes was extremely complex with the superposition of three bodies, Congress, Executive Council and Management Board.

The letter said the structure should be streamlined and simplified with a four-power system - the legislature (congress), executive (executive committee) and judiciary (disciplinary and appeal committees), as is the case in FIFA, Confederations and football associations around the world.

FIFA also said it frowned on government's nominations to the management board.