Henry Asante Twum, the Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), disclosed that over the past three years, the GFA has allocated $300,000 from the total $8.6 million received through FIFA Forward funding (spanning from 2016 to 2022) for the purchase of footballs to support clubs in the country.
Asante Twum shared this information during an interview with Asaase Radio, highlighting the GFA’s ongoing efforts to invest in football development and infrastructure using the resources provided by FIFA Forward.
”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.
Additionally, Henry Asante Twum disclosed that the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has made significant investments in various areas to support clubs and women’s divisions.
These investments include allocations for IT equipment, capacity building initiatives, administrative structures, and the supply of essential necessities to strengthen the foundational aspects of football development in the country.
“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.