FIFA gives Ghana three months to reform

Accra, April 4, GNA - FIFA, World's Football Governing Body, says appointment of government nominees to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) board - which should consist solely of democratically elected members - will no longer be tolerated.

It has subsequently, asked the GFA Secretary to forward a roadmap that will effect the needed changes within three months.

A BBC report seen by the GNA Sports said FIFA has ordered an overhaul of the statutes of the Ghana Football association (GFA). It has ruled that the current GFA structure has done serious harm to the administration of the game.

"The architecture of the GFA statutes is extremely complex with the superposition of three bodies, the Congress, the Executive Council and the Management Board," said Jerome Champagne, FIFA's Deputy General-Secretary, in a letter dated March 23 to GFA Secretary Kofi Nsiah.

"With overlapping competencies and three different presidents/chairmen, (it has created) instability and a lack of clarity in terms of political legitimacy.

"The structure should be streamlined and simplified with a four-power system.

"There should be legislative (congress), executive (executive committee) and judicial (disciplinary and appeal committees), as is the case in FIFA, Confederations and football associations around the world," Champagne advised.

FIFA also expressed its unhappiness with the decision of GFA chairman Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe to take his battle with a group of stakeholders, who want him ousted as GFA boss, to the courts. The GFA's 37-man executive council passed a vote of no confidence in Nyaho-Tamakloe last year, which prompted him to take the matter to a High Court in Accra.

"The repeated violations by the GFA president of Article 61.2 of FIFA statutes, on the prohibition of the recourse to ordinary courts, clearly proved the necessity to incorporate in the GFA statutes stricter clauses on legal disputes.

"Recent violations cannot be tolerated any longer by FIFA," the letter warned.

It stated further that FIFA requests the Ghana FA to launch a process to redraft its statutes in the coming three months. "This process should take place quickly ... FIFA would be grateful to the GFA to propose a detailed timeline for the completion of the various steps of this process.

"Immediately after the ratification of those new statutes by an extraordinary (GFA) congress, elections will be organised based on this new text and under the supervision of FIFA and CAF.

"Too much time has been lost in unnecessary and counter-productive political and legal infighting within and around the GFA," Champagne said.

But the infighting within the GFA could delay the articulation of a roadmap, as Nyaho-Tamakloe told BBC Sport that he has not seen FIFA's letter, a week after it was reportedly sent.

GFA Vice Chairman Kwesi Nyantekye told the GNA Sports on Monday that the association was scheduled to hold a meeting on the issues raised by FIFA in the letter believed to be with Mr Nsiah on Tuesday.

"For now, I cannot comment on the letter until I have fully read the content", Mr Nyantekye told the GNA.