Mr. Ben Koufie, Chairman of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), has attributed the present plight in Ghana football to the delay in the release of funds for national assignments.

Mr. Koufie said in a radio interview on Monday monitored by the GNA Sports that allowances, bonuses and other benefits for players invited for national assignments are unduly delayed and this was the cause of the "abysmal performance of the national under-17 and 21 teams over the weekends."

The Starlets were knocked out in the first round of the qualifiers by the Harambe Stars of Kenya while the Satellites failed to qualify for the World Youth Championship when they lost 2-3 to Cote D'Ivoire in a final group match in Burkina Faso on Saturday.

The GFA Boss said, " if this happens, players are ill motivated and are unable to perform to the best of their abilities".

He said hitherto, the GFA was blamed for poor planning but added that the trend has now changed. " As at now, most of the national teams go to camp for at least six weeks to two months, but the main problem has been non-availability of funds for our objectives to be achieved".

Mr. Koufie said due to the delay by the Ministry of Finance in releasing funds the GFA is compelled to pre-finance the national teams, but the Association lacks the resources to do.

He cited for instance that the GFA had to pre-finance the airfare of the Black Satellites to the unsuccessful African Youth Championship in Burkina.

On the way forward, Mr. Koufie said, the only panacea to the perennial problem is to limit the number of international competitions the country should be engaging in especially if the nation has no funds to prepare the teams.