The Ghana Football Association (GFA) chairman,Mr. Edwin Simeone Kurt Okraku, has observed that clubs in the Upper East Region and their owners need to undergo capacity building to enable them catch up with modern trends and administration in football and club management.
Mr.Okraku said club branding was one important thing that clubs should take serious because it enhances the image of the club. This he observed was missing in clubs of the sunshine region.
“I think there is a lot to be done and discussed, there is need for capacity building across board and branding, whilst we do a lot of capacity building, it will impact how we manager football across board, men or women;and how we give football as a product to our direct consumers who are the fans.”
The newly elected boss of the GFA who was visiting the region for the first time since his election said it take a great responsibility to make a club attractive to its consumers
“The ability of a club owner to develop your own club to become an interesting and attractive product not only to the communities who are the direct consumers but the general public is a big responsibility and task and you need a skill to do that.”
He said a capacity building for clubs and their owners will make available international accepted skills and knowledge for the management and branding of clubs. He said clubs and club owners need to go beyond seeing clubs as just social enterprise.
“This is why I talked about capacity building, so that we impact more knowledge so that people will now appreciate that football has now gone beyond a social enterprise and has become an economic enterprise. It is a long road, but given how we have started what is happening today being inclusive and giving women the top notch opportunity, we will get there”
Mr. Edwin Simeone Kurt Okraku said this during a media interaction in the Upper East Region where he visited to inspect a land that has been released to GFA to construct an AstroTurf in Winkongo, a suburb of Talansi District in the Upper East Region under the sponsorship of FIFA.
The Upper East Region has produced players who competed for Ghana at various national levels and competitions and have excelled .
MTN Soccer Academy where Daniel Azubire and Daniel Abaa were crown champions. And Robert Ayamga and Martin Ayine were placed third and fourth respectively in the same year, Shadrack Adombila recently won the Rexona Next Champion organized BY Rexona with support from Chelsea Football Club in England. and represented the country in England . David Atanga started his football career in the Upper East before leaving for Germany where he is now plying his trade.
By Swanzy Bawa