George Afriyie criticises Kurt Okraku over youth development and Ghana Premier League transparency

Former Ghana Football Association (GFA) vice-president George Afriyie has criticised Kurt Okraku’s administration, questioning its record on youth development, transparency in the Ghana Premier League and the fulfilment of key campaign promises.

Afriyie, speaking on Ahenfie FM, said Ghana football had not made the expected progress during Okraku’s seven years in charge, arguing that shortcomings in youth development were undermining the quality of players available to the senior national team, the Black Stars.

“Kurt Okraku has been in charge of Ghana football for seven years. In those seven years, we can attest that things haven’t been right with our football. Our youth football isn’t working to the point that would translate into a better Black Stars,” he said.

The former GFA vice-president argued that youth development should have been a major priority from the beginning of Okraku’s tenure, stressing that a strong foundation was essential to producing players capable of competing at the highest level.

“If you don’t build a solid foundation, it will be difficult to put up any good building on it. So from the beginning, Kurt Okraku should have focused on youth development,” Afriyie added.

• Afriyie questions youth development strategy

Afriyie also questioned whether short-term youth competitions could deliver meaningful and sustainable progress, arguing that organising a two-week tournament involving regional teams at Prampram, even with financial support from KGL, was not enough to establish a comprehensive development system.

“If, by God’s grace, we get some money from KGL and we gather the various regions for a tournament for two weeks at Prampram, they say they have developed youth football. That’s not development,” he said.

“We must make conscious efforts to develop the Colts of the league.”

He believes a more structured approach to grassroots football is needed to identify, nurture and prepare young players for the demands of professional football and eventual progression to the national teams.

Afriyie linked what he described as weaknesses in the youth development system to the Black Stars’ heavy reliance on footballers playing abroad.

He questioned why Ghana struggled to find suitable replacements from the domestic league when foreign-based players withdrew from international assignments.

“Isn’t it strange that Ghana will call players about 24 for an assignment, and 23 of them are foreign-based, and about nine are withdrawn? We couldn’t have one single player from the local league to replace them,” he said.

“Then we must rightly admit that nothing is working right.”

According to Afriyie, the inability to identify adequate replacements from the 18-club Ghana Premier League raises questions about the competition’s capacity to develop players ready for international football.

• Autonomous league and transparency concerns

Beyond youth development, Afriyie accused Okraku of failing to deliver on key promises outlined in his manifesto, particularly plans to strengthen youth football and establish an autonomous league.

He argued that the GFA president had presented an ambitious programme when seeking office but questioned whether the administration had followed through on its commitments.

“I think it’s about leadership; it's about a leader who couldn’t stick to his own programme. Because when Kurt Okraku was contesting for the position, he had a manifesto, a plan. It was a complete manifesto that outlined what he wanted to achieve as far as Ghana football is concerned,” he said.

Afriyie singled out the proposed autonomous league as one of the commitments he believes remains unfulfilled.

“The Premier League, in his manifesto, says that if voted in, he would introduce what we call the Autonomous League. Today there’s no autonomous league,” he added.

An autonomous league is intended to give the competition greater independence in its administration and commercial operations, although the precise structure would depend on the model adopted.

Afriyie also questioned the level of transparency surrounding the Ghana Premier League’s sponsorship arrangements, arguing that the GFA should provide clearer information about its commercial partnerships and financial commitments.

“He also said he would run an administration, and the hallmark of that administration would be transparency. As we speak today, if I were to ask who is sponsoring the Ghana Premier League, we would get all sorts of answers because we don’t know,” he said.