Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Ghana Football Association (GFA) Medical officer, Prince Pamboe is worried about the immediate future of the Premier League in the wake of the raging coronavirus pandemic.
The top-flight is currently under suspension as part of the measures to curb the spread of the disease which has so far infected 2,119,300 persons worldwide and claimed 141,945 lives.
The championship was halted at Match week 15 following a nationwide ban on public gatherings including sporting events.
“There are so many things we need to do before we can ensure our football continues,” Pamboe said this in an interview on a Kumasi-based radio station.
“Football has to do with mass movement of a lot of people including fans, players and all other people who are connected to the game. These are the key ways by which the virus spreads.”
“So in a month or two, even when the virus has gone down, what health authorities are still going to advise is that we do not have too many gatherings and travel unnecessarily.
“Imagine there is a big match at the Accra Sports Stadium and one supporter harbouring some Covid-19 within him shows up at the stadium and this person infects many people, then we will have another pandemic again.”
Ghana has so far recorded 641 cases of the coronavirus involving eight deaths and 83 recoveries.
“Even when things die down, a lot of measures will have to be put in place, as in giving the players a lot of psychological support,” Pambo added.
“They will need enough time to do pre-season [training] and will need to be medically re-examined because if you are bringing people together, you have to do mass testing for everybody including technical staff, supporters among others.”
“When you look at all these things I know the GFA does not have the capacity to do.”
While some stakeholders want football back as soon as possible, others including club officials have called for the complete annulment of this season’s championship to avoid the temptation of rushing football back.
