Not content with emmbroiling itself in match-fixing allegations and flying in $3 million in cash to pay its players mid-way through a World Cup, the Ghanaian FA has added chauvinism to its resume with the wholly serious suggestion that domestic teams entice “sexy girls” to their stadia in a bid to boost attendance.
Confirming his status as the Donald Trump of football, President of the Ghanaian FA Kwesi Nyantakyi told a local radio station that “we must let sexy ladies enter our stadia and the men will readily follow them into the stadium to watch games.”
Instead of focusing on those areas more traditionally at the core of an FA, like improving skill levels and promoting grass-roots football, Nyantakyi is confident his approach will bare fruit: “Most of these men when they hear that beautiful girls are coming to the stadium today, they’ll all jump and follow them to the stadium…and they are going there purposely to see the ladies”. Indeed, it’s a plan he’s already tested: “I remember there was one match the we brought some beautiful girls who were in nice jeans to the stadium… The men in the stands went into frenzy and when the ladies waved at them - come and see how jubilant they were.”
Clearly Nyantakyi – described as a “Football Dictator” on his Wikipedia profile – has little confidence in the capacity of Ghana’s domestic footballers to attract viewers on their own, and in that regard at least he’s probably right: overshadowed by the live TV feeds from the Premier League and La Liga, attendance at football matches in Ghana has plummeted over the last decade.
But before everyone jumps to judge Kwesi’s sexist outburst, let’s just keep one thing in mind:
