The Ghana Football Association has revealed that the FIFA Connect system has made their work easy and has also given them a centralised database.
The FIFA Connect initiative assists member associations in systematically registering all of their stakeholders, tracking players, coaches, and referees wherever they are in the world, and automating their competition management processes. FIFA Connect assigns a unique FIFA ID code to each individual who holds a position in a football organization, serving as a digital football passport number and containing information and history about each stakeholder. For the last six years, the GFA has been a crucial partner for FIFA in testing various aspects of FIFA Connect.
“The FIFA Connect system is a huge leap. The FIFA Connect system is giving us a whole new level of comfort and enhances our work more than a hundred-fold. Players will tell you… and currently, we run a same-day service, so if a player needs an introductory letter to maybe go and do something, maybe go to apply for a visa to go and play abroad, they apply in the morning and then they get their introductory letter on the same day.”
“If they don’t have a very good IT system like the FIFA Connect platform to register players and to play their matches very soon, they’re heading for a crash. Because the number of players is growing, the number of issues associated with you running an association without a registration platform like this is very risky. The risk is very high. And so, we engage with other associations every now and then, and some of them come here to also take lessons and look at what we are doing. And so, I would say that there is the willingness that this is the step to take.”
“With the implementation of the Connect project, it has given us a centralised database, where, with a click of a button, we can get any information that you need about a particular player, from junior to Premier level. Also, it helps us to generate player passports for our players. And, invariably, helping our clubs to make money in a sense that when it comes to claiming compensation, with the help of the player passports, it’s so much easier for the clubs to make their claims against other clubs that have the precious players from Ghana. So, the system has been very, very helpful.”
“At the end of a season, we can look at all the matches played in Ghana, all the goals scored, all the goal assists, the saves [made] by goalkeepers, and this is going to help our technical directorates in making decisions when it comes to the national-team level. So these are some of our main goals and objectives that we want to achieve in the near future.”
“It has empowered me. Because, at first, when you are training, you are thinking about travelling, going to sign your contract and registration forms. But now, you can concentrate 100% on the camp. You know, when your camp starts pre-season, it’s really important. You have to concentrate on it and [take in] everything that the coach has taught you. But during pre-season, because of registration, you are affected in a way. But with this [system], nobody goes anywhere. You’ll be there; they’ll register you. You don’t have any age problems, any date problems, any signature problems. When they register you, they register you. Everything is at a touch [of a button] on the system. So I think they’ve done very well bringing out this system.”
“This system, the CMS, has been very helpful. It has saved us from the posting system that [we used to] do. And also, it’s very fast: you can just be in your car and be doing it. Last time, right after the match, within ten minutes, I had done the report.
“Once a player gets into the system from whichever age, he only moves from club to club in the system. They don’t need to keep records or go back to each club and then get records. Everything is with the FA [Football Association], everything is in the Cloud. Once you go into the system, you get access to whatever you want. I would encourage each and every FA to embrace it.”