The National Sports Authority (NSA) has been forced to make a sensational u-turn on their unpopular charges for Premier League clubs for the usage of the Accra sports stadium.
This is after the Authority on Tuesday, October 20, 2020 announced that the five clubs that will use the stadium will be charged between GHC 15,000 and GHC 20,000 for category C and B Matches respectively.
This sparked controversy and anger from football fanatics after the announcement.
The widespread backlash has forced the NSA to withdraw its own directive barely 24hours after it made the decision.
The agreement was reached after a closed door meeting with the Ghana Football Association and other major stakeholders.
Charles Obeng Amofa, the Public Relations Officer of the National Sports Authority, in a media engagement confirmed the withdrawal.
“…there were calls from stakeholders, GFA, GHALCA and some of the clubs that were affected with these new charges. So we took a decision to withdraw the systems yesterday. We are consulting the Ministry of Youth and Sports and we are also in touch with the clubs.
We hope by close of today we should be able to come up with new charges or whether we will go to the old way that we’ve been using for our matches. We will inform the general public as soon as we are done with the consultation,” he said.
The NSA earlier announced rates to be charged for teams that will use the Accra Sports Stadium ahead of the 2020/2021 Ghana Premier League (GPL) football season.
According to the statement, the new charges were to run throughout the Coronavirus period, subject to review at the appropriate time.
The Accra Sports Stadium will host more matches in the upcoming season in both the Premier League and Division One as five teams have confirmed to use the venue.
Sworn rivals Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko as well as Inter Allies, Great Olympics and Legon Cities will share the facility in the upcoming 2020-21 season.
The 2020/21 Ghana Premier League is expected to start on 13 November 2020.
Asante Kotoko will begin their campaign against Eleven Wonders at the venue.
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