I admire the diplomatic language used by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to dismiss the subtle maneuvers by some faceless people who are determined to mislead the Ghana government to interfere in the running of football in the country.

It is for very good reasons that FIFA insists on football associations running the sport to the exclusion of all others. FIFA clearly frowns on government interference. Those countries that have tried to control the sport have received severe sanctions including suspensions and it is curious that the so-called sub-committee of the transition team on the social sector should make recommendations that would put the government in an embarrassing situation.

The patriotism of the transitional committee should be questioned especially when they claim be abreast of all the nuances of the game notably FIFA’s interventions when there is the slightest hint of governments unseen hands in football matters. If you think the suggestion to include government representatives on the FA management boards and to review the term office of the FA is strange, then the call for the forensic auditing into the list of registered players for the 2006 World Cup stating every player’s per diem allowances and those of the accompanying officials smacks of some sort of witch hunting.

At a time when Ghana is in a hectic struggle to qualify for South Africa 2010 why should we spend time “thoroughly investigating payments headed ways and means”? I am convinced that the GFA took the right decision by asking the public to ignore the bogus recommendations and firmly proclaiming that it would resist any attempts by government to share in the management of football in the country. We need to have some peace in our football set up for even in some politically unstable African countries, there is enough peace in their football and their national teams are showing a lot of progress.

It may not be too far fetched to conclude that some interest group would like to find an unorthodox way of serving on the management of the various national teams for reasons best known to them. To such schemers the GFA wants to make it clear that power and authority to appoint, review and dissolve its management committees rested exclusively with it. “No individual, group of individuals or institutions can purport to exercise such a right” says the GFA.

With this clear cut statement, I would like to plead that the furore should end and all energies must be galvanized to prepare a highly spirited team for the Black Stars’ next World Cup assignment against Mali in June. It is a very tricky away match and the result would go a long way to shape the fortunes of the Black Stars in the qualifying series. The distractions won’t help anybody and must stop.

Let’s continue to give the FA a free hand to run the sport and shun this notion that a new government means changes in all facets of society. It does not work that way at least in the field of sports administration especially football associations where continuity and familiarity with international bodies is a trump card. We need to move forward.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports