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Top-flight league in Ghana has some life in it

The top-flight league in Ghana still looks promising after match day 1 games.

There were a lot of thrills in all the 8 league centres and ended up producing 15 goals.

I will admit that the Ghana Premier League has lost some shine in recent times due to issues such as players are rushed into seeking greener pastures overseas, which emanates from low remuneration and poor conditions of service, also the influx of the European leagues into the country as a result of globalization, etc

The league doesn’t generate the excitement football fans enjoyed during the days of Dogo Moro, Mfum, Osei Kofi, Baba Yara, Addo Odametey, Ibrahim Sunday, Malik Jabir, Kwasi Owusu, Dan Owusu, Mama Acquah, Peter Lamptey, Abdul Razak, Mohammed Polo, Robert Hammond, Kyenkyehene, Papa Arko, Opoku Afriyie, Opoku Nti, Ablade Kumah, Tony Yeboah, Ablade Kumah, Shamo Quaye, Joe Debrah and even  the days of players like Ishamel Addo, Osei Kuffour, Charles Taylor, Michael Osei, Joseph who all played in the late 1990 and early 2000’s

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I was impressed with the quality of play from the clubs and I think that anybody who had the opportunity to watch these two games would side with me. The ferocious attacking play from WAFA was amazing as talents like Samuel Tetteh dazzled the Porcupine Warriors. In the Hearts of Oak game, although, Samudeeen Ibrahim didn’t score, he was adjudged the man of the match after exhibiting much promise. Hearts of Oak looked very improved compared to last season when they struggled throughout the season, although it is early days yet.

The other 6 centres equally generated much interest and enthusiasm, per the reports I gathered. Attendance was encouraging and if we are to market and promote the league very well it would get closer years back when numerous fans trooped to the various stadia to watch their idol clubs play. It is therefore incumbent on all stakeholders to double up our efforts to make the league gets to the level we want it to be.

The clubs should continue to display the sort of fine football they sold out on the opening day of the league and with spectators guaranteed of good football they would have no other option than to watch the teams, even at the expense of the Chelsea’s, the Man United’s, Arsenal’s, Barcelona’s, Real Madrid’s, because they will the luxury of seeing the local players play not on TV, but will have physical visual on them.

The Ghana Football Association and the Premier League Board should intensify the promotion of the league: At first Super Sports was the only TV station with the right to show the league, however, other TV stations, like GTV has been given the right to televise the league games. It is a good attempt, but there are short comings in other promotional outfits, for instance the GFA website is mostly inactive, because it doesn’t provide much information on the league. It gives no numbers on players for spectators to follow players who are showing much promise. There should be a highlight show and Super Sports has decided to come up with a monthly highlight show for a start. The GFA should also do their best to get the sponsorship issue thrashed out. Clubs were even complaining of financial issues, when the likes of GLO, First Capital Plus were the headline sponsors, let alone a sponsorless league. They will feel much heat now and they have no collateral to secure bank loans, because they can’t expect any sponsorship money. I know the GFA is making the effort, but it needs to intensify it.  Disciplinary issues have not started coming up, but the various adjudication bodies should be advised ahead of time to be free and fair in their judgment in order not to drag the league into any unnecessary legal tussle. The GFA should also continue to advise referees to apply the rules on the field to help reduce hooliganism in some of the centres.

The press ought to promote the league: The press has a bigger stake in the success of any league and the Ghana Premier League is a no exception. Most media outfits in Ghana allocate greater percentage of our time talking about the local league. However, some of our comments tend to paint the league very black, hence it ends up discouraging football fans from watching the games. It could be that we were trying to give the real picture of the league to the public, but now that we have seen some promises in the league we should start painting a good picture of it. I am not in support of certain happenings at the GFA, especially the way its adjudication bodies work. I was shocked to read that the Appeals Committee had overturned the Ethics Committee’s decision to demote Techiman City to division 2 for match fixing, just a day to the start of the league, without stating the basis of their ruling. Some of these raise a lot of questions about the judicial processes of the GFA and Kwesi Nyantakyi can be blamed for some of these issues that put his led association in a negative state. However, I think a lot of journalist blow things out of proportion by attacking the personality of Nyantakyi and to the extent of inciting the public to boycott the league or wish that the league falls flat. Some try to associate the contributions of past GFA in relation to the success of the league during their times and compare them to this current regime. I think the success of the league then was not solely due to the policies the GFA at the time put in place. There were certain factors like globalization had not increased, so most people were content with what was available. Many people in the 1980’s and early 1990’s had no Televisions in their homes, let alone satellites decoders to watch European league. It was only GTV who were showing ‘Football made in Germany’. Also local agents were not in the increase as compared to today, whereby every football city or town has a local agent to help players seek greener pastures overseas leading to the increase in player exodus. The league had no sponsor then, but clubs managed to survive, because those were the days footballers could do additional jobs in addition to football as a career. Even government channeled monies to finance Ghanaian clubs in their participation in Africa inter club competitions. We are in the professional football era, so government doesn’t shoulder some of the cost clubs incur during their Africa campaigns. We shouldn’t have short memories by giving past FA chairmen, so much credit at the expense of the current regime; because when it comes to administrative structures in helping the promotion of the league, the Kwesi Nyantakyi led GFA surpasses a lot of the past administrations. Ghanaians always praise the dead and paint the living black, that is why we award a lot of people posthumously. I won’t take you far: People should cast their minds back at the regime of Nana Brew Butler, M.ND Jawula, Ben Kouffie, Nyaho Tamakloe and they would appreciate what is happening in Ghana football now. I think the current GFA hasn’t attained the level we want them to take Ghana football to, but we should criticize constructively.

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The fans should continue to show good sportsmanship by routing behind their idol clubs and should be ready to accept any score line that come their way without resorting to violent means such as intimidating away supporters, match officials, etc to express their anger. Ebusua Dwarfs lost at home to their fellow new entrant Dreams FC, but there were no reports of violent conducts at Cape Coast and that is what we expect in subsequent league games. Support was good and this should be encouraged as we move forward.

Refereeing didn’t come under criticisms, this shows that officiating was appreciable and it should continue in the upcoming games.

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