Black Queens goalkeeper Fafali Dumehasi hails YEA’s initiative

Black Queens goalkeeper, Fafali Dumehasi, has commended the initiative by the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to enroll 1000 athletes in sports on a program dubbed the ‘Youth In Elite Sports For Ghana’ after revealing, she has been helping some female players to overcome financial difficulties.

Government of Ghana committed a fund to the sporting industry to help them overcome the dire financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Out of the 1000 athletes that will benefit these entitlements, 500 slots were given to football and the GFA reached a consensus to allocate the slots to players in the women’s premier league.

Under the program, 480 female players have been earmarked by the GFA to receive a monthly allowance of GH¢ 500.00 each starting from July 2020 and this will be regular for the next six month which will amount to a total of $288,000.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Stephen Zando on Kumasi based YFM, Fafali, who is a Police Officer and keeps the post for women’s top division side, Police Ladies welcomed the move.

“It was something that personally I was very happy about because you know these players, if you don’t get the chance to be in the national teams, you wouldn’t get anything.

“The clubs in the women’s league don’t have enough money to pay monthly salary, some even are only able to offer food and ‘pure water’ during games so when this came up, I was very happy, I thank them especially the GFA President [Kurt Okraku]," She said.

She, however, revealed that the poor financial state of the women’s game has forced her to reach out to colleague female players who are most in need.

“One thing about me is that I do help them a lot because I really understand their situation.

“I was like them before I got the chance to be in the police service so if there is no national assignment, I work and I get something monthly to take care of my family.

“But looking at them, you can’t just ignore them, some even come to me personally for help and I just can’t look at them and neglect them so they can testify to it that I do help some a lot,” She added.

Fafali Dumehasi got married to her boyfriend Kingsley Blackson in February 2020.