Kurt Okraku pushing for VAR to be used in the Ghana Premier League by January

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) president Kurt Edwin Simeon-OKraku is pushing for the implementation of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in the Ghana Premier League by January 2025.

This was disclosed by the referee manager and VAR team leader for the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Alex Kotey.

Speaking to Citi News, Kotey said Okraku is eager to see VAR being used in the next two years and wants to see it introduced in the second round of the current Ghana Premier League season.

“President, our president is pushing very hard and he even wants it to start, you know, in the middle, he thinks that by the second round of the league, we should even start with the VAR.

“And so, it is a lot of work, but we are to do it. And so, we’ll try and put our hands together and see how best it can be done,” he said.

VAR training for media

He also added that the GFA wants to train media personalities so they can be acquainted with the technicalities involved in using the technology.

“We don’t expect any media person to go sit on radio whilst they are being used to use or come up with language or words that are not in conformity with the VAR, you know.

“And so, we need to take the media, the broadcasters, and everybody into a very some form of training just for them to know the language, you know, that they need to use when they are broadcasting or they are commentating or whatever it is.

And so, 2025/26 is our action plan, but we will try and make sure that we have some trials before the implementation itself, okay.”

The GFA met a FIFA delegation on October 31 and November to begin the process of adopting VAR technology in Ghana’s football competitions.

Read Full Story