John Paintsil - Hapoel Tel Aviv & GhanaJohn Paintsil - Hapoel Tel Aviv & Ghana

Paintsil laments 'fallen' state of Ghana Premier League

Former Ghana international John Paintsil has bemoaned the current "fallen" state of the domestic league.

From lack of headline sponsor, poor infrastructure, bad quality of play, perennial player exodus, litigations and frequently disrupted calendar, the topflight has become a major topic of discussion.

Paintsil, who played for local sides Liberty Professionals and Berekum Arsenal during his time in Ghana, is just the latest to add his voice.

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"It [Ghana Premier League] used to be bigger than now," the former West Ham United fullback told YFM.

"The league, I think it has gone down.

"The league goes down when the supporters or fans have given up on it and on their clubs.

"Fans make football exciting because if you look at the South African league, the fans are making it more exciting.

"Fans want to go to the stadium to see good football, beautiful football and skillful players doing things that make them happy and scoring more goals in games.

"Back in the days when we used to play, with the likes of Emmanuel Osei Kuffour, Charles Taylor, and Don Bortey - when they used to play for Hearts and Kotoko - you could see the league was intense, [had] skillful players, high creativity and lots of goals - it was fun.

"I think we need new coaches and good players to improve the game.

"Recently, I heard someone say when they go to the stadium to watch Ghana Premier League games, every two minutes, the ball goes [out of touch]."

The Premier League has been without a lead sponsor following the withdrawal of First Capital Plus Bank (now Capital Bank) over “restructuring” reasons in 2015.

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