Anas exposé the cause of difficulties in Ghana football as Aduana Stars' Opoku laments survival hardship

Aduana Stars midfielder Elvis Opoku has blamed renowned Ghanaian international undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas for the current troubles in the West African nation's local game.

His remarks follow revelations by his club's chief executive office Albert Commey about how the Dormaa-based outfit, like other teams in the country, have had to force players on pay cuts due to the absence of football competitions and consequent withdrawal of corporate sponsors of the teams.

Domestic football has taken a back seat since an Anas investigative documentary exposed bribery and corruption activities in the Ghana Football Association in June 2018, causing an overhaul of the body and pulling the plugs on all running events including the Premier League and FA Cup.

“We can’t blame the management of Aduana Stars for the difficulties," Opoku told Otec FM.

“The Anas exposé brought all this and has led the players to a difficult situation.

“We will plead with the [Ghanaian] government and the Normalisation Committee to come to the aid of the players because we are in hard times.

“If it were to be an institution [in this difficult situation], they would have gone on demonstration but since we are players we can’t engage in that.

“As we speak we have kids that we pay school fees, utility bills too, and this is a worry so the government should come to our aid because football is our full-time job.

“The government together with the Normalisation Committee should put proper measures in place for the comebank of Ghana football."

Resumption of the top-flight, following a makeshift Special Competition organised between February and June this year to "keep clubs busy", has been left in the air due to a lack of agreement between a Fifa Normalisation Committee for football administration in the country and the Ghana League Clubs Association (Ghalca).

Last month, a move by the Committee to begin a new league season was rejected by the clubs who insisted on holding an extraordinary congress and electing a new FA leadership to supervise the organisation of the local championship.