<<Print>>

The former Ghana women's boss shares his thoughts on the future of the domestic season amid the Covid-19 crisis.
 
Renowned Ghanaian coach Bashir Hayford wants the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to focus on securing a headline sponsor for the Premier League during the football downtime instead of ambitions to bring back the suspended championship.

All domestic competitions have been on hold since a national ban on public gatherings, including sporting and religious events came into effect as part of measures to curb the spread of the deadly disease on March 15.

The Premier League league's last headline sponsor was Xylofon Media who saw their partnership scuppered by a 2018 GFA corruption scandal.

“I will use this opportunity to [remind] my colleagues, the FA and the stakeholders in Ghana football that we started the league with no sponsorship," former Somalia head coach Hayford, an applicant for the vacant Ghana technical director job, told Aben FM.

“I will advise the FA to cancel the league and use this time to seek for good sponsorship so they can package next season well.

“When we resume the league we the coaches are going to suffer a lot because we are not like Europeans.

“We don’t have good facilities for training and facilities for examining us.

“All that I want to say is that the GFA should cancel the league and plan well for next season."

The Premier League went without a headline sponsor between 2015 and 2018 after First Capital Plus Bank, now Capital Bank, prematurely ended a partnership over restructuring purposes.

Xylofon took over the mantle in 2018 but a turbulent corruption scandal crashed the partnership in less than a year. The league has since been without a lead sponsor.

Ghana's ban on all contact sports, including football, meanwhile, remains in effect until at least July 31.

The GFA has set a June 30 deadline to make a final decision on the future of the 2019-20 Ghana football season in the wake of disruptions.

Recently, football's governing body, through the Ghana Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS), made a proposal to the national government for a possible prompt return of football under conditions such as the playing of matches behind closed doors.

The request was, however, turned down.

The championship was at the matchweek 15 stage - with Aduana Stars leading the table - when the competition was brought to a halt.