Retired Black Stars versatile midfielder Derek Boateng has made his feelings about the Ghana Football Association (GFA) very clear following the recent crisis in Ghana’s football infrastructure, while questioning the passion of the FA’s leadership.
Football, as we know it, has transformed the lives of many, including Derek Boateng himself, through the generosity of the late Alhaji Sly Tetteh.
However, instead of being fueled by the passion of the game, greed has crept in the space, resulting in individuals assigned to the management of the sport in Ghana becoming more interested in the business aspect of it rather than the sporting, according to the perspective of Boateng.
Boateng, now a global scout for the prestigious Right to Dream Academy, which has produced stellar stars such as Mohammed Kudus, Kamaldeen Sulemana, and others, revealed the negative attitude exhibited to him by certain unnamed persons at the Ghana Football Association will not deter him from voicing out at the ills in Ghana Football.
“For me, they shouldn’t take it personal because when you talk about the things going wrong, they take it personal and start to give you an attitude, but I don’t care about any of them. I care about the football. I care about the players because when it’s good for them, it is good for all of us.
For me, if I talk about the bad things going on in our football and they give me attitude, I don’t give a damn,” he said on Max FM.
Though the governing body of football in Ghana, the GFA, is not responsible for the management of the football stadia in Ghana, the former Fulham and Getafe player feels the body should have stepped in once the government of Ghana failed in its duty through the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the National Sports Authority to adequately see to the maintenance of the national football stadia.
“What is the FA doing since the government is not supposed to interfere in sports? Because you want football pitches. Since the government has proven incapable of doing this, why don’t you do it as the FA?
They can’t afford it? But they can pay people $100,000 to go to the World Cup [Qatar 2022] to go and sit in business class and VIP to watch the players playing,” he continued, responding to the interviewer’s [Nana Darkwa Gyasi] defense of the GFA not being responsible for stadia management.
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