Story Highlights
- GFA’s own statutes list at least 17 distinct revenue sources — from subscriptions to broadcast rights to FIFA grants — but no public document breaks down how much each generates
- The most recent publicly available full-year figures date to 2010, when the Auditor-General reported GHS 13.7 million in revenue against GHS 12.9 million in expenses
- A 2020 pledge by GFA’s General Secretary to begin publishing annual accounts on the federation’s website does not appear to have been fulfilled
- FIFA statutes bar government interference in national federations, sharply limiting the state’s leverage over GFA’s finances
After the Black Stars, Ghana’s national football team, were knocked out of the World Cup, online conversations turned to the team’s overall performance. The results were a mixed bag.
While some praised the team’s effort in making it out of the group stage, others were quick to point out their flaws using on field obseravations and analytics.
In the ensuring conversations, the blame for the team’s performance shifted to Ghana’s Football Association (GFA).
Some critics called for the firing of the GFA president Kurt Okraku. Others sought answers on how much the GFA receives and why it wasn’t translating into meaningful change.
(For reaching the second stage of the World Cup, the Black Stars and the GFA received prize money of $11 million)
Article 65 of the GFA’s statutes lists seventeen categories of revenue the federation is entitled to collect.
These include members’ subscriptions and licensing fees, national competition entry fees, player registration fees, gate proceeds, marketing and merchandising receipts, fines, donations and sponsorships, government subventions, investment returns, broadcast rights, advertising, royalties, patent and trademark rights, player image rights, and grants from FIFA, CAF and the West African Football Union.
What the statutes do not provide — and what no public GFA document appears to provide either — is a breakdown of how much each of these sources actually generates.
A review of GFA’s official website and available public records found no itemized revenue statement matching the categories the federation’s own constitution establishes.
The Last Full Picture Is Fifteen Years Old
The most recent detailed financial figures publicly attributed to GFA date to a 2010 report presented to the federation’s Congress by Ghana’s Auditor-General.
That report found GFA had obtained GHS 13,725,459.94 in revenue against GHS 12,950,643.76 in expenses, an operating surplus of GHS 774,816.18 — down from a surplus of GHS 1,240,686.04 the year before.
Then-GFA President Kwesi Nyantakyi told Congress the figures were “worrying” and called for the federation to pursue more aggressive revenue growth.
No comparable public breakdown has surfaced since.
GFA has continued to undergo FIFA’s annual “Central Review” audits — financial reviews covering funds such as FIFA Forward and FIFA COVID-19 disbursements — but the results of those reviews are not made public.
In 2024, GFA’s Finance Committee noted that the federation had received “excellent ratings” in its FIFA audit for the year ended 2023, without disclosing supporting figures.
In 2020, GFA’s General Secretary, Prosper Harrison Addo, told Accra-based Angel 102.9 FM that the federation would for the first time publish its annual financial statements on its official website, framing the move as a step toward transparency following the corruption scandal that led to GFA’s dissolution and reconstitution two years earlier.
As of this publication, no such itemized annual statements appear on ghanafa.org.
The latest figures can be found in a video from the GFA’s 31st Congress Meeting.
In the meeting, the FA reported that between 2019 and 2024, total revenue from football activities reached GHC 401 million (~$34.9 million), while non-football activity revenue totaled GHC 56.44 million (~$4.8 million).
The association reported total expenditures of GHC 436 million over the period. The FA expects expenditure for the 2025/2026 revised budget to increase by 1% over the previous year’s approved budget.
The Chief Finance Officer noted that the revised budget for 2025-2026 is projected to grow to GHC 150.3 million. This is expected to reach GHC 180 million in 2027.
The Labari Journal was unable to find documentation for these financial reports at the time of publication.
| Revenue | Expenditure | |
| 2010 | GHS 13.7 million | GHS 12.9 million |
| 2019 – 2024 | GHS 401 million | GHC 436 million |
Why the Government Can’t Simply Compel Disclosure
GFA’s institutional structure limits the state’s options. The federation is a company limited by guarantee, not a statutory body — its statutes were not enacted by Parliament nor made under constitutional authority.
Legal commentary on the matter has noted there is little room for government intervention in the affairs of a company limited by guarantee, and that even serious allegations of wrongdoing have historically led courts to pursue individual officials rather than dissolve the underlying company.
Ghana tested the limits of this arrangement in 2018, after an investigative documentary by journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas exposed alleged match-fixing and bribery within GFA.
The government moved to dissolve the federation and initiate liquidation proceedings through the Attorney-General.
FIFA responded by warning that the liquidation petition constituted “undue influence” in GFA’s affairs, in violation of FIFA’s own statutes, and threatened to suspend Ghana from international football.
The move would have barred the men’s national team, women’s team, and club sides from all FIFA and CAF competitions — unless the petition was withdrawn.
The episode illustrated a structural reality: FIFA, not the Ghanaian state, holds the primary enforcement power over how national federations govern and account for themselves.
GFA’s one formal link to public funds is through the National Sports Authority, from which it may receive subventions and grants under the Sports Act, 1976. That funding relationship is narrower than GFA’s full revenue base, but it is also the clearest point at which public accountability mechanisms could apply.
An Open Question
Whether GFA’s revenue framework, established in its own statutes, will ever be matched by a public accounting of actual figures remains unresolved.
The federation has pledged transparency before without visible follow-through, FIFA’s rules constrain direct government pressure, and the legal tools available to citizens — while real — remain untested in this specific context.
This article was edited with AI and reviewed by human editors
