The Executive Council of the Ghana Football Association has approved the GFA Registered Football Academy Licensing Regulations 2025 which will govern the licensing, regulation and the operations of football academies in the country. The regulation, which comes into effect immediately, gives existing clubs using ‘Academy’ in their name one year to meet the requisite requirements. After this period, they will be compelled to change their name to Football Clubs if they fail to meet the conditions in the regulation. Under the GFA Registered Football Academy Licensing Regulations 2025, clubs which intends to operate an academy must meet strict requirements and inspected before they will be certified to operate football academies in Ghana. The Regulations provides a platform and an opportunity for young boys and girls (6-18 years) to play football by inculcating professionalism amongst intending elite football players. The new regulations also seek to create a safe and secure learning environment leading to self-knowledge on fair play, laws of the game, health and fitness, leadership and tactics in an enjoyable manner. The overall objective is to foster the holistic player development approach through the implementing the GFA Talent Identification and Development programme. The Regulations also applies to Beach Soccer and Futsal Academies for boys and girls. The Regulation takes due cognisance of the provisions of the Children’s Act, the FIFA and the GFA Safeguarding Regulations and creates modalities and strict conditions for authorisation of international travels for academies and young players. Under this regulation, only clubs (companies) may own academies after going through the strict inspection regime. The list of licensed academies in Ghana will be published on the GFA website. The Academies approved under the regulations will be issued a licence that will be reviewed and renewed on yearly basis to ensure the maintenance of regulatory standards. The Academy Regulation is also aimed at streamlining the system to weed out unapproved and inappropriate establishments from the football ecosystem. As part of this regulation, all licenced academies will play in the leagues in their football districts to promote competitiveness and full player development. This regulation will be fully enforced to streamline and regulate the running of Football Academies in the country. The Association will in the coming days hold a meeting on the subject and open the application process to its members. GFA COMMUNICATIONS