GFA sets new date to start 2020-21 football season
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has released a new date for the commencement of the 2020-21 football season.
The new date has been scheduled for November 13, 2020, by the football governing body as announced on its official website Thursday.
The news comes in the wake of concerns about an October 30 commencement announced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during a COVID-19 update on measures taken to fight the coronavirus on Sunday.
The released statement from the FA stated:
“The Ghana Football Association is pleased to announce that the 2020/2021 season will commence in November.”
“This follows the decision of government to give the green light for football to resume.”
“The Nations flagship competition, the Ghana Premier League is expected to kick start from Friday, November 13, 2020. While, the Division One League kicks off on December 3, 2020. The Women’s Premier League is set to kick off on January 2, 2021.”
“It’s been well over six months since football in Ghana was halted due to Covid-19 and with the game set to resume, many are anticipating for a great comeback, looking at how the annulled season was exciting.”
“Clubs will need to fulfil all Club Licensing Regulation requirements. The Club Licensing Board has the responsibility of vetting the license application of the clubs to ensure compliance with legal, administrative, finance, technical, medical and security requirement of the GFA Club Licensing Regulation before issuing licenses to clubs. This should be submitted on or before October 5, 2020.”
“On October 6, 2020, the Club Licensing Board is expected to begin inspection of venues and secretariat of clubs in the Premier, Division One and the Women’s Premier League. This will help affirm the decision to approve various centers submitted by the Clubs if they meet the criteria.”
“The various Clubs are to register their players at all levels for the new season to begin and it is expected to end on October 31, 2020.”
“The Premier League, Division One and the Women’s league clubs have up to midnight (23:59 GMT) of November 5, 2020 to submit the final list of their players and officials for the new season.”
“Another communique concerning Regional Football Association’s competitions, Beach soccer and Futsal would be issued in due course.”
“The Association will also issue COVID-19 protocols and Regulations in addition to the Guidelines from FIFA and CAF which were earlier sent to members.”