A thorough investigation by Kickgh.com's Pascal Amoah into Ghana football shows that life for the vast majority of Ghanaian footballers is a far cry from the razzle-dazzle of those lucky enough to play in the world's elite leagues.
A large number of football players in Ghana live a precarious lifestyle and their control over their career path on the domestic scene is minimal.
While many young Ghanaian lads dream of becoming the next Mohammed Salah or Thomas Partey, the data collected by Pascal Amoah paints a dark picture of the reality of life as a footballer in the West Africa nation.
One of the shocking findings of the survey is that physical abuse of footballers in Ghana is the worst in the world, as players face multiple forms of abuse such as they are intimidated to sign contracts which come with poor remuneration.
In heartbreaking scenarios, some of these players are paid as low as GHc50 a month and in several other cases, players are promised massive signing on fees and 60 to 70% of the time, these monies are never paid.
Players also bewailed at high levels of discrimination by club owners, fans, other 'so called' senior players, coaching staff and third parties who partly 'owned' the players.
What some players earn in Ghana is incomparable to any professional footballer in the world. Majority of the players rely heavily on their families for daily upkeep. Some also have to beg their friends who are doing well in their respective career paths to give them money which they normally termed as 'kakra' to survive.
Sometimes, others even go as far as appealing and begging rich people in their communities for money to help sustain themselves. I can state on authority that most of the things people hear about players not being paid well are not lies.
Strangely, some of the players go as far as begging for gobɛ or yo ke gari which is usually common in the southern parts of Ghana. Some also go round begging for rice from food vendors.
Ghana Premier League and FA Cup winner, Abednego Tetteh, who currently plays for top flight side' Heart of Lions' in a recent interview with Kumasi based Lawson TV bemoans the terrible situation in respect to finances in the Ghanaian local league.
“Players play under a lot of difficult conditions, players are not paid well so a player will come to the field with a lot of anger because he's a hungry man, so I don't blame the players so much for what happened at Nsoatre."
For instance, an Accra-based club doesn't bother to pay some of its players but rather gives them a stipend of GHc50 ($3.22). Yes, you read that correctly, while others doll out GHs150 ($9.67) a month. Some other clubs even struggle to pay their players monthly salaries of GHc600 ($38.66). In most cases, most clubs fail to pay the full signing-on fee to players. In a nutshell, clubs are usually not able to pay the signing on fees agreed with players.
One club I personally know in Tema verbally promised the players to put in their best and when an opportunity comes they will be released to go and sign, but placing them on a monthly stipend wasn't going to happen.
The poor remuneration in the Ghanaian league is what explains the broad player exodus, where they migrate to countries they are told their leagues are more lucrative where wages are significantly higher. And it's not completely to the elite European leagues, some of these players cajoled to unpopular destinations such as Bangladesh, Laos and even Somalia or Iraq.
When wages in the Ghanaian league are compared to the monthly pay in the Iraqi Premier League, for example, for example a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars per month depending on their skill level, the team they play for, and their position on the field, with top players in the Iraqi top-tier potentially earning significantly more, it is then, relatively, comprehensible why players from Ghana are migrating to seek greener pastures in large numbers to anywhere a ball is played or bounces in a foreign country.
In a comprehensive approach and a whole-system solution
In proposing and suggesting a solution, I think players must be subjected to a wage limit in the Ghana Premier League, which will make it very alluring. However, an improved pay grids or structures will contribute to the retention of quality players in the country and hence make the Ghana top flight league very competitive and attractive.
By: Pascal Amoah
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