The Chief Executive Officer of Bechem United, Nana Kwesi Darlyn has urged the Ghana Football Association to introduce a pay cut measure for it’s staff in a bid to manage the financial implications of the CoronaVirus pandemic.
Nana Kwesi Darlyn believes this cost-saving measure will enable the GFA save a chunk of the $500,000 money from FIFA, and subsequently share for the various clubs who have been financially burdened because of the Covid-19 induced break from normal football operations.
The World Football governing body, FIFA announced last week that they will release all operational funding due to member associations for the years 2019 and 2020 in the coming days as a first step of a relief plan to assist the football community impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This measure will mean that a total of around USD $150 million will be distributed among the 211 national football governing bodies around the world with every federation guaranteed not less than $500,000.
There have been myriads of opinions on how the Ghana FA should disburse the funds by football stakeholders and Nana Kwesi Darlyn has added his voice to them.
The Bechem United CEO opines that it behoves the GFA to analyse the situation and spread the monies to almost every football sector that needs help.
To help make the funds more evenly distributed, Nana Kwesi Darlyn is advising the GFA to implement pay cut measures for its staff to cut down on operational costs.
He believes that with this in place, monies will be saved so it can be shared among the local clubs who also need financial assistance from the country’s football governing body in these challenging times.
He told Asempa FM, “they (GFA) cut salaries because globally everyone is introducing pay cut (due to the CoronaVirus pandemic), so that half of the money can be used for their operational costs and another half can cater for the support for clubs”.
“I don’t think this would affect the GFA in any way, so if they can do this, then we (the clubs) will jubilate because no matter what we will get a portion of the funds”, he concluded.
The Ghana FA has commenced engagements with its various members (via Zoom Cloud Meeting) to update members on the impact of COVID-19, other football issues and the way forward for the Association.