Mass player exodus in GPL will not change anytime soon - Neil Armstrong-Mortagbe
26th July 2024
Neil Armstrong-Mortagbe, the Head of PR and Strategy at the Ghana Football Association, has highlighted a significant trend in the Ghana Premier League: the regular departure of top players at the end of each season.
He underscored that this phenomenon is unlikely to change and is an inherent characteristic of the league.
Speaking at the 2024 Afro Sports Summit, Mortagbe urged clubs to accept the reality that the Ghanaian league functions primarily as a selling league.
According to him, the best players frequently move abroad, with recent transfers heading to clubs in Rwanda, Tanzania, and North Africa.
"Running a football club in this country, if you look at the budgets of some of these clubs, it goes into millions of cedis. So the concept that our president has is, how you empower them to make their money?" Mortagbe explained.
He further emphasized that the Ghanaian league's role is to develop and sell young talent, often those aged between 18 to 26.
"We need to understand that this country is a selling country when it comes to football. What do I mean by selling country? We produce players to sell," he said.
Mortagbe acknowledged the challenges of marketing young players to enhance the league's profile while they are still in Ghana.
He stressed the importance of adapting to this selling model to ensure the financial sustainability of clubs and the overall growth of the league.