Nii Lante Vanderpuye
Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, has called for a holistic restructuring of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to help improve the performance of the country’s national football team, the Black Stars.
The former Sports Minister, who serves as the Member of Parliament for Odododiodioo, believes that the GFA is bedevilled with a conflict of interest, affecting the morale of players of the national soccer team.
His comments come after Ghana’s chances of qualifying for the next round of the 2023 AFCON were dealt a major blow after the Black Stars suffered another late meltdown to draw 2-2 with Mozambique, as well as the sacking of head coach Chris Hughton.
Speaking to Citi News, Nii Lante Vanderpuye suggested that urgent steps must be taken to salvage the disturbing trend.
“[This is what we get] When we have a situation where individuals are involved in club management and these same individuals are in the football management of the country. They are also managers and agents of players, and also agents of technical people. It becomes difficult for us to avoid the situation of conflict of interest.”
“And this is affecting morale among our players. It is sickening, and we must talk about it. I agree with people who think that the whole GFA must be restructured; I totally agree. The alternative is to have an interim management committee to look at it,” Nii Lante Vanderpuye opined.