Women Clubs Chase GFA For Share Of FIFA Fund

A management member of La Ladies, Mr Laud Nsiah Laryea, has challenged the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to cough up all accummulated funds accruing from the clubs’ 10 per cent share of the FIFA Development Fund for women soccer since its inception. He said the mismanagement of the FIFA Fund by the FA was having a serious effect on women clubs in the country such that some of them had already begun folding up. He told the Daily Graphic that one of the oldest ladies clubs, Tesano Ladies, had folded up due to lack of funds.“We the clubs saw it as a relief when we heard that we will be entitled to 10 per cent of the $250,000 FIFA Development Fund, so for the FA to keep the money is having a telling effect on the clubs”, he said. “The way the FA is running the game is killing women’s soccer because monies meant for the clubs are not released to them. The only time the FA released $10,000 from that money to the Greater Accra Women’s Soccer Association (GAWSOCCA) was in 2005”, he revealed. “The game is dying seriously. In 2005 we played a novelty league; in 2007 there was no league at all, and even this year we don’t know our fate yet.” Mr Laryea, who has been an advocate for the women’s game for sometime now, stressed the need for all female clubs to be given seed money to prepare and compete in a competitive league which would produce good quality players for the Black Queens. According to him, players are supposed to be selected for the national team based on their performance in the league and not merely on clubs they play for. He also appealed to the FA to stop imposing coaches on the Queens since the women’s game is different from that of the men. He urged the GFA to consider the system which pertains in Nigeria where coaches of the three top teams in the league are appointed to handle the national women’s team.