Soccer News of Friday, 7 May 2010

Source: Ghanasoccernet

GFA Exposed

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has been EXPOSED after apparently conceding that its incompetence led to the extremely long delay in the nationality switch for German-born Kevin Prince Boateng.

The BBC revealed last month that the delay in the approval of the nationality is because that the GFA had not fulfilled all the conditions by Fifa for the nationality switches.

The GFA moved to rubbish the BBC story claiming they had provided all the documents for the player to be approved to play for his father’s country.

But in a sneeringly embarrassing move, the Ghana FA has officially admitted that they have now sent the needed papers for the switch is approved.

“We have forwarded Kevin’s passport and another document to Fifa. It’s only a matter of time that a decision would be made on him,” GFA vice president told the federation’s official website.

“The submission of the passport completes all the requirements and we are certain that Fifa would act on it sooner. We expect a decision before the World Cup finals.

“For now, it’s only a matter of days for a pronouncement to be made.”

It is now clear that but for the BBC’s article on the issue Boateng would not be approved before the World Cup.

Now it is clear that if the GFA had moved faster and acted on the issue rapidly, Boateng would have played for Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations in January.

The seriously depleted Ghana squad could have won the tournament if Boateng had added his experience to the team that finished second in Angola.

These revelations show the intensely worrying administrative lapses within the GFA which has undermined and could further chip away the game following recent major gaffes.

A major administrative blunder by the Ghana FA two years ago saw the local Black Stars not registered for the maiden CHAN tournament until Ghanasoccernet exposed the rot within the GFA and embarked on a campaign to plead with Caf to reconsider Ghana.

The Black Stars reached the final of the tournament in Ivory Coast and the GFA rushed forward to claim the glory even though no one resigned over the initial failure to register the team by the deadline.