After procuring sports equipment for Women's Division One League clubs across Ghana with funds from their share of the UEFA Assist, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) says it is looking forward to more collaborative programmes with the Ghana Football Association (GFA).
Following the General Secretary's request during the Football for Inclusiveness Programme in Ireland, the FAI agreed to use its share of the UEFA Assist funds to provide footballs and cones to all Women Division One clubs across Ghana's ten football regions.
The proposal was accepted by the Football Association of Ireland and successfully forwarded to the UEFA Assist programme.
Jonathan Hill, Chief Executive Officer of the FAI, expressed the Irish FA's delight at supporting women's football in Ghana and stated that the Irish FA looks forward to working with the GFA in the future.
“We are delighted to be working with UEFA on this excellent funding initiative to help support our friends in the Ghana FA. This funding, support directly provided by UEFA will help deliver footballing equipment to the second tier of women’s football in Ghana.
“We would like to thank UEFA for this opportunity and funding to take our own expertise and knowledge to support another FA and to thank Ghana for their hospitality and look forward to working with them into the future.” said Jonathan Hill.
Head of Grant Funding & Infrastructure Development of the FAI, Walter Holleran who made a trip to Ghana also shared his excited about the opportunity to assist in the development of the women’s game in Ghana.
“It was an honour to visit such a beautiful country as Ghana and spend some time learning about the Ghanaian footballing culture. Sincere thanks to the GFA General Secretary Prosper Harrison Addo and his wider team for their warm welcome. The UEFA Assist programme provided a fantastic platform where we the FAI, could help support the Ghana FA. Our thanks to UEFA for this creative funding initiative. We look forward to working on similar programmes into the future”, Mr. Holleran added.
The equipment support will be made available for the upcoming 2022/23 season for the second tier Women’s football development in Ghana.
"The Ghana Football Association is extremely grateful to the Football Association of Ireland and the UEFA Assist for this kind gesture. This support will go a long way to develop grassroot Women’s football and to give a lot of our young girls a channel to express themselves socially through football. Football is indeed a great tool for social inclusion for a lot of our girls at the grassroot and as such the importance of this equipment support from the FAI and UEFA Assist cannot be over emphasized", GFA General Secretary Prosper Harrison Addo (Esq) said.