In a massive boost for Ghana Football, FIFA President Gianni Infantino held a historic meeting with President Kurt Edwin Simeon-Okraku at the FIFA Offices in Paris, France.
This meeting was at the behest of the FIFA President who had invited President Simeon-Okraku to meet with him to discuss matters related to the development of the game both in Ghana and on the African continent.
The FIFA President gave President Simeon-Okraku a very warm welcome to the FIFA Offices in Paris, indicating how pleased he was to meet with the Ghana FA boss to share thoughts on how the game in Ghana was developing. The meeting was held in a very positive spirit and the remarks shared by President Simeon-Okraku to reporters after the meeting pointed to the usefulness and progressive nature of the conversation he had with President Infantino.
President Simeon-Okraku, first thanked the FIFA President for the warm reception he had accorded him, going on to share a few key points on the synchronization of the vision of the FIFA President with that of the Ghana Football Association.
“First of all, I would want to say ‘thank you’ to the President [Gianni Infantino] for the invitation. We were here to speak about football on the global stage and, obviously, on the African continent, zooming in to Ghana. FIFA, led by the President, has been at the forefront of support for the development of football., especially in Africa. And it was always important for us to engage and to know how far we are going, how well we are doing, and what we have to do to make it much, much, much better. I think that the President is very clear in what needs to be done. And as the President of a Federation, I’m also very clear on the vision of FIFA and, together, we are both sharing the same vision.”
President Kurt Edwin-Simeon Okraku then proceeded to paint a picture of the gains made by Ghana since he took over as President of the Ghana Football Association in 2019.
“I think that the Ghanaian game was at a low before 2019. Fast forward 2019, 2020 and now, and I think that we’ve made big inroads. Bringing all our competitions back. Bringing the desire and the passion of the people back. All our national teams are now competitive. We’ve gone ahead to also introduce more youth competitions, more youth national teams. Back to the (FIFA) World Cup in Qatar, after we lost out in 2018; our Black Queens, the female national team, are back in AFCON, after being away for a while. Our youth national teams are also on the rise again. All our domestic competitions are back on track and are held in a timely manner. And so I think the outlook looks very good (for Ghana Football). What we have to do now, going forward, is to harness the potential and the positives that have come out of what we have done, and to make sure that we continue to improve on the work we are doing. But, at the moment, I would say we are on the rise again.”
President Kurt Edwin Simeon-Okraku in concluding his remarks, showered copious praise on FIFA for the awesome support that the world governing body for Football has given Ghana over the years, specifically acknowledging some key FIFA officials working out of the organization’s Senegal office.
“First of all, I would say ‘thank you’ to FIFA the support via various schemes; through the FIFA Forward programme and the many other interventions that FIFA has introduced. Working with the office in Senegal with Gelson [Fernandes] and Solomon [Mudege] and the team, we are very clear on the support and necessary areas. I think that my Association has been very proactive in making sure that we continuously engage. I think that these levels of engagement, when they’re pushed a notch higher, will bring in more results. And this is what we are working on.”
This historic meeting is a shot in the arm for the President of the Ghana Football Association and for the entire Association as it provides fresh impetus for the work of President Simeon-Okraku and his Executive Council in their quest to lift Ghana Football to unprecedented heights.
