President of the Ghana Football Association,Kwasi Nyantakyi has said youth football is of extreme importance to the football Association.
In 2016,the Association launched the maiden edition of the National U-15 Youth league at the football association’s secretariat.
The move is to revive juvenile football in the country as well as help develop future stars to form the core of the national U-17 team the Black Satellites of Ghana.
Speaking at the GFA’s three day summit which was held in Cape Coast under the theme, ‘Ghana Football: Stronger Partnerships for a Brighter Future’, the president said “Youth football is an issue of extreme importance to the FA and so we have decided that the national U-15 competition will continue as representatives of the regions. Each region will present a regional team but the current practice where we have clubs playing U-13,15 and 17 will still continue”.
He also spoke about securing sponsorships for the youth league.
“We will explore opportunities to seek sponsorships for our youth competitions. The FA will also be working to strengthen and provide more competition for youth football”.
“From the 2018/19 football season, we are going to ask all GPL to own U-17 teams each.
President Nyantakyi also added that the GFA will reintroduce the U-17 league which will be part of their efforts to fulfill the requirements of the club licencing system.
“The U-17 clubs of the Premier League sides will play as curtain raisers to every premier league match in the country.
The three day summit was held to address problems facing the country’s favorite sport while examining ways of improving on recent successes.