Member of the Parliament for Wa Central and former Minister of Sports Hon. Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo has cautioned the incoming Sports Minister who shall be appointed by the president-elect Nana Akufu-Addo after he takes office on January 7th 2017.
Rahid Pelpuo who made an appearance on Sports Xtra on Viasat1, stated flatly that the GFA is not an extension of government and advised the incoming new minister to cooperate with the FA rather than engage in unnecessary conflicts.
“I will tell the minister to work with the GFA, cooperate with them. It is the way to develop Ghana football and it is the way to get the Black Stars and the smaller teams to go far. It doesn’t pay when you have a conflict with them and you begin to fighting them as if the GFA is an extension of the government. It is an elected and not part of government,” he told Hassan Hussein last Wednesday.
Nii Lante Vanderpuye, the current Sports Minister has had a very rocky relationship with the current GFA executives in his attempt in rein-in on the perceived corruption at the FA. This has not gone down well with a lot of football administrators in Ghana which has also partly affected the performance of the Black Stars.
Touching on this situation last Wednesday on Sports Xtra, the Member of Parliament advised that the best approach is for the GFA and the Sports Ministry to work under Ghana’s policy on football and cautioned against interference in the activities of the GFA which may lead to divisions that go a long way to affect sports in Ghana.
“We should get the GFA to work under the umbrella of Ghana’s policy on football; but that should not change the character of the GFA. If you try to change the character, if you try to influence their elections, if you want to fight people who are already in office, it will mar the situation and not auger well for Ghana football. Once you run contrary to them, you introduce divisions, you introduce contradictions and it goes to affect the national teams in general,” the MP explained.
It is still unclear who the new president elect will appoint as Ghana’s Sports Minister after January 7th.
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