Football icon Abedi Ayew Pele has reiterated how football can be used as a tool to promote peace during and after the 2024 Ghana General Elections.

With growing tension surrounding the December 7 elections, where Ghanaians will vote for both parliamentary representatives and a new president, many stakeholders have dubbed the poll the most crucial in the country’s history.

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President and flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), and former president John Dramani Mahama, flagbearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), are the leading candidates in the presidential race.

Pele, a three-time African Footballer of the Year, pointed to a historical example of football's potential to foster peace, recalling how FIFA used the sport to broker a ceasefire in Kosovo in the 1990s through an exhibition match.

“Football can unite a nation. Football can bring people together. And football is the number one peacemaker to ensure that the elections go well, peacefully, without any incidents at all. The whole country should listen and be very patient,” Pele told Max TV.

“We always say that patience moves mountains. We should just be patient and allow our leaders to do what it takes to bring peace. Football is the key to the heart of the people.

“And you all know, in the 90s, during the Yugoslavian war, I know the president of FIFA at that time, President Blatter, organized the World XI against Europe in Kosovo.

"And when we got there, driving through the whole city, there were guns firing. But we were brave enough, and we were lucky that when they said we had all arrived in the city, the guns were silent. The stadium was full of military men, and everybody had their guns down. And it tells you what football can bring to the people."

Abedi Pele is one of Ghana’s most decorated footballers, having won the 1982 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with the Black Stars and the Champions League with Marseille in 1983.