The Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Henry Asante Twum has said the Football Association invested $300.000 in purchasing footballs for clubs in the country in the last three years.
Speaking to Accra-based Asaase Radio, Mr Asante Twum revealed that the said amount is part of the $8.6m provided by FIFA Forward funding from 2016 to 2022.
”We announced some time ago that about $100,000 will go into purchasing of footballs for all our Regional Football Associations because our clubs in Division Two, Division Three and then Colts leagues lacked the needed basic amenities to help them develop players at the grassroots level.” – Henry said on TeamTalk.
“So it’s something we’ve been doing for the past three years. Every season, we invest $100,000 to purchase footballs for all the RFAs and then it is supplied to the clubs.” He added.
He further revealed that the country's football governing body has invested a lot in IT equipment, capacity building, administrative structures, and supply of the basic need go into the fundamentals to cushion clubs and women’s divisions.
“Administratively we also decided to invest in IT, we bought internet and then administrative computers and communication gadgets for all the 18 Premier League clubs to be used at their Secretariat, all the 48 Premier League clubs also benefited from it.
”The 20 Women’s Premier League clubs also benefited, not only the Premier League clubs but all the 10 regional football associations also benefited from the IT initiative that we announced as part of the benefits we received from the FIFA forward 1.0.
“So, it has gone into various areas of administration. But, football is such that once it doesn’t show on the pitch, everybody seems to forget what you have done in terms of investments," he added.
The FIFA Forward initiative is tailor-made support for football development that the organisation provides for all its 211 member associations (MAs) and six confederations.