After a six-month break, competitive football in Ghana will resume in January, the Normalisation Committee for the nation's sport has announced.
All competitive local football matches and competitions, including the Premier League, have been on hold since June after an investigative documentary exposed corrupt and match-fixing activities of top officials and referees of the football association.
With the 2018-19 football calendar now completely off balance and the competitions truncated for good, an all-new championship is to be introduced to keep clubs active until the start of the new calendar year in August.
"The GFA Normalisation Committee is pleased to announce that it has outlined the way forward for the resumption of official domestic football activities in the country," a statement signed by president Kofi Amoah on Friday reads.
"The Normalisation Committee has created a new competition structure, which will involve all sixteen (16) Premier League and all forty-eight (48) Division One League clubs in the country.
"The new competition, which will keep all the clubs active during the GFA normalisation process, as well as produce Ghana’s representatives for the next Caf Champions League and Confederations Cup respectively, is scheduled to start on January 26, 2019, and end on April 21, 2019.
"The Normalisation Committee appreciates the quest of our members and football-loving Ghanaians for football to return, hence the extra effort we put in place to find the needed resources for this special competition.
"The competition will soon be launched and the full details of the format will be announced."
The corruption scandal led to the resignation of FA president Kwesi Nyantakyi, who has since been handed a life ban by Fifa, while the FA premises was declared a crime scene by local police.
"In a related development, the Normalisation Committee is also finalising arrangements for the resumption of the women’s and regional competitions," the statement continued.
"We look forward to an exciting return of domestic football in the country with the support of all our stakeholders. We urge all football fans to embrace the fresh opportunity and patronise the upcoming matches at the various venues."
The Normalisation Committee, jointly set up by Caf, Fifa and the Ghanaian government in September, has been given the mandate to, among others, restore normalcy to the country's sport. It is due to run football until March 31 next year.
