NC special tourney begins Saturday

The Normalization Committee (NC) of the Ghana Football Association has launched its special football competition for Premier League and Division One Clubs.

The three-month competition, designed in two tiers, is set to commence Saturday, March 30.

Sixty-three Premier and Division One Clubs confirmed their participation by close of work Monday when the competition was launched.

The only club yet to confirm participation is DOL side New Edubiase.

Speaking at the launch, President of the NC, Dr. Kofi Amoah said the Government was fully funding the competition as well as that of the women’s special competition.

He said government would continue to provide support to restart football for the various lower divisions and juvenile leagues in the various regions.

He said football was now a business enterprise which must be operated as such to generate income to benefit footballers.

Dr Amoah said each of the 64 participating Premier and Division One clubs will get GH¢30,000, as participation fee.

The winner of the Tier One League will take home Gh¢ 200,000 in addition to representing Ghana at the next CAF Champions League, the runner up takes home Gh¢ 100,000 with the winner of the Tier2 (Special knockout competition) walking away with Gh¢150,000, and the runner up taking home Gh¢ 80,000.

For the knockout phase of the special competition, which will be played on a knockout basis, teams in the round of 32 will receive Gh¢ 5, 000; Gh¢ 6,000 for the round of round of 16; Gh¢ 8, 000 for quarter finals, 10,000 for semi finals while runner up takes Gh¢ 80,000 with the winner smiling home with Gh¢150,000 (in addition to representing Ghana at the next CAF Confederations Cup).

Dr. Amoah said that the competition will also test some of the proposals they want to bring on board as well as the rapid adjudication of cases, to make Ghana football much better.

“We believe referees must be made to adhere to strict code of ethics to protect the sanctity of refereeing. For this competition, we have decided to increase allowance for match officials and they will also be subjected to strict code of ethics of zero contact with officials of matches.”

He said there is money to cover officiating fees for five officials per match, match balls for all match centers, match coordinators, media coordinators, video coverage of matches by GFA Cameramen, safety and security as well as administrative expenses (committees allowance, TMS training, etc).

BY RAYMOND ACKUMEY