A LOOK INTO 2007

2006 shall forever remain in the annals of the history of Ghana Football as the most successful year for the Black Stars. The Black Stars qualified for its maiden world cup and created an indelible impression that Ghana is one of the greatest soccer nations in the world.

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) recognised that a sustainable development agenda must be put in place to ensure that the path of growth and development carved through the success of the Black Stars was consolidated.

Accordingly, the 4-Year Business and Development Plan was promulgated as our development blueprint for the next four years. Targets were set and policy goals and objectives and benchmarks created to guide our conduct and also serve as measuring rods for our strive to achieve the best standards for football.

2006 brought in its wake several successes and a few shortcomings. In 2006, we embarked upon a progressive plan to lay a strong foundation in youth football. We re-structured the GFA Secretariat, reviewed staffing appraisal, compensation, job evaluation and training.

We also reviewed ITC infrastructure of the FA, undertook a review of the situation of the clubs and the legal regulatory framework for the management of the game. We reviewed refereeing, coaching, sports administration and medicine. We reviewed our management of the national teams, our policies and strategies for the management of the FA.

The cumulative effect of all our efforts is that the GFA is now very well managed with the introduction of modern scientific management practices that have ensured more efficiency, transparency and a greater accountability. We will like to carry the laudable virtues into 2007.

2007 shall provide the platform for the association to consolidate on the modest gains achieved so far.

We shall also reposition ourselves to overcome the few shortcomings that crossed our way to success.

We will then be in a better position to accomplish some of the key objectives and plans set for the upcoming years as follows:-

1. YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Youth development shall remain the cornerstone of our development agenda. The National School of Soccer Excellence shall be a culmination of the efforts to lay junior structures in the regions.

Five best players from three age categories each for boys and girls from each region will be selected to form the nucleus of the best players for their age categories.

The highlights of the year shall be the national youth festival, which shall be the congregation of regional teams for the above categories.

We shall first organise inter-district competitions for the U-12, U-15, U-17 for boys and U-13, U-16, and U-19 for girls. We shall then have the inter-regional competitions for the said categories.

2. NATIONAL TEAM ACTIVITY

The Black Stars will be busy playing friendly matches from February 7, 2007 to October 2007 to fine-tune the team for the 2008 African Cup of Nations.

The Black Meteors will be playing qualifying matches for the All Africa Games and Olympic Games.

The Black Satellites, though out of the Africa Youth Championship, will be taking part in the biggest youth festival in the world in Toulon, France.

The Black Starlets will take part in the African U-17 competition in Togo and hopefully the U-17 World Cup in South Korea.

The Black Queens will be playing the qualifying matches for the Olympic Games. The team will also be participating in the World Cup in China.

The Black Princess will be preparing for the All Africa Games and World U-20 Competition in Chile in 2008.

The Black Maidens will also be preparing for the first ever World Cup in 2008.

3. INTERNATIONAL CLUB COMPETITIONS

Asante Kotoko, Ashgold will represent Ghana in the CAF Championships League. Tema Youth will represent Ghana in the Confederations Cup.

We hope the clubs who are torchbearers for the country in the CAF Interclub Competitions will lift high the flag of Ghana.

4. DOMESTIC LEAGUE

Following the change in the domestic football calendar, the 2006/2007 Season will end in April/May 2007.

Though the premier league programme was briefly truncated by unnecessary court cases, we are hopeful that the New Year will be more rewarding.

The Division One League is coasting towards its end with 3 matches to go. The new promotion/demotion format approved at the last Congress will witness the spread of premier division clubs across the 3 zones in Ghana.

The 2nd, 3rd and Colts leagues are all on course in the Regions.

5. REGIONAL FOOTBALL ASSOCIATIONS (RFAs)

The Regional Football Associations (RFAs) are supposed to constitute the bulwark for the work of the FA. We are committed to resourcing the RFAs to make them more functional. Most of our programmes at the grassroots will be implemented through the RFAs.

In 2007, we intend to concentrate more effort at revenue generation and mobilization as well as marketing of the FA and a continuation of the programmes initiated in 2006.

I expect that in 2007 the rumour mills and gossip think-tanks around the corridors of the FA will put a stop to their worthless ways.

I was surprised that at the beginning of the week an anonymous caller who only described himself as a freelance journalist called into my phone that he was investigating an allegation of diversion of cars belonging to the GFA.

I wish to assure all that such allegations as unmeritorious as they are must be treated with contempt.

I wish to thank all our stakeholders for supporting all our activities and programmes during 2006.

I pray we enjoy the same support in 2007.

I wish you all a prosperous 2007.