‘Aadwa Team’: The day 28-0 was not the biggest scoreline in Ghana football

Marvel at Asamoah Gyan’s extra-time golazo against the USA in the round of 16 of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Gawp at Tony Yeboah’s successive Premier League goal of the month awards in August and September 1995 after he scored two similarly stupendous goals against Liverpool and Wimbledon.

Allow Google to remind you of how a teenage Nii Odartey Lamptey dominated the 1991 U-17 FIFA World Cup, scooped the Golden Ball and led Ghana to win the trophy. There’s more delight in gazing at Abedi ‘Pele’ Ayew’s heroics at Olympic Marseille, Samuel Osei Kuffour’s magic at Bayern Munich and Michael Essien’s indomitable outings for Lyon and later Chelsea – all players who went on to win the UEFA Champions League.

When football and Ghana are mentioned in the same sentence, these are some of the accomplishments that readily come to mind, along with their country’s four Africa Cup of Nations titles.

Like the favelas in Brazil and other South American nations, communities in Ghana see football in a completely different light. More than just a sport or a game of passion, it is a culture.

But for all of Ghana’s gains in football, the country experienced one of its darkest days a decade and a half ago, when two promotion play-off matches controversially produced 59 goals on the same day. Yes. Fifty-nine!

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It was Wednesday, March 28, 2007. The Ghana Premier League was awaiting confirmation of its three new entrants following the relegation of Tano Bofoakwa, Gomoa Fetteh Feyenoord and Power FC.

In the old format of the Division One League, 48 clubs are paired into six groups of eight teams each. The leaders and runners-up then progress to the play-offs – also known as the National Middle League – where they are again paired into three groups of four teams each. Here, the winner of each group automatically secures promotion to the Ghanaian topflight.

During the 2006/2007 season, two groups of the National Middle League were quite straightforward, as Wa All Stars and Kessben (now Medeama) made light work of their opponents to win their groups. Both teams secured promotion with a 100% record after winning all three of their group matches.

However, the competition was tighter in the third play-off group, where Nania FC, Great Mariners, Tudu Mighty Jets and Okwawu United were battling for the last remaining promotion slot.

After two rounds of matches, Nania and Mariners stole an early lead and were both level on four points, having won their opening games and drawn against each other in the second. And so while Mighty Jets and Okwawu were already out of contention, the joint-leaders had all to play for going into the final day of the season.

As Nania faced Okwawu at the Gyandu Park in Sekondi, Mariners were also locking horns with Mighty Jets at the Robert Mensah Stadium in Cape Coast. Everything was set for a competitive climax to this promotion battle. Or so everyone thought.

But not even the fact that the two matches were played concurrently, or that both games were being played at venues 82 kilometres apart, could stop the skullduggery that transpired. The advent of mobile phones meant communication and information weren’t too hard to disseminate to and from both match venues.

And the two teams didn’t hesitate to take advantage.

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Controversies were commonplace during the game but the biggest of all was tied to the scores – Great Mariners walloped Mighty Jets 28-0, while Nania responded with a 31-0 victory over Okwawu United.

Per these outcomes, Nania should’ve booked their ticket into the Ghana Premier League, but the results rather opened a can of worms. Make no mistake, goal-fests are normal in football. But 59 goals in two play-off matches on the same day… that surely is outlandish.

The suspicion of manipulation gained added scrutiny due to how the games developed. Both Nania and Mariners took leads into the half-time break, but only by 1-0 and 3-0, respectively. The real drama, however, unfolded in the second half.

The two teams had all to play for but their opponents had nothing to lose and that, interestingly, was how the second half panned out. By the hour mark, Nania were 2-0 up and Mariners 5-0 ahead. Not even those keenly monitoring the two games could’ve predicted the combined 52 goals that followed in the final 30 minutes of each game.

The happenings in the Nania vs Okwawu game were particularly fishy. Not only were the goals ending up in a single net with frequency, but Okwawu also missed a penalty when presented the chance to pull one back.

Even more comical, amidst the flurry of goals for Nania, Okwawu’s players on the pitch kept decreasing with each passing minute. You’d be forgiven to think such a cricket score came about due to multiple sending offs, as Okwawu ended the game with just seven players.

On the contrary, having used all their substitutes, the players reportedly kept leaving the pitch with the excuse of an injury until only seven were left – a number that, within the laws of football, allows the game to continue without being stopped by the referee. As if that was not impish enough, all of Okwawu’s goalkeepers, whether genuinely or deceptively, wound up injured, resulting in a player acting as a makeshift shot-stopper for the team.

The world has never run out of misfortunes, but this was the most extreme of all extremes and not even the great Harvey Specter from the American drama series Suits could clean up such a seemingly carefully scripted storyline.

Another account has it that with each goal conceded, the Okwawu players picked the ball from their net and rushed to restart the game. They would then lose possession, allowing Nania to quickly launch another attack to add to their tally. The goals were routine and the general play seemed to follow a particular pattern. In the end, Nania shipped 31 goals past Okwawu without any reply.

But they weren’t alone in celebrating a goal-fest. While Nania were scoring with monotonous regularity, their rivals Mariners were responding with homogeneity against Mighty Jets, who on this day weren’t so mighty. For every goal that went in, the fans present squalled ‘aadwa team’ – a Ga phrase that translates as ‘a team is being routed.’

In the end, Mariners recorded a 28-0 win over Mighty Jets, three shy of Nania’s. The latter appeared to have won the promotion battle after outscoring their main challengers, but both teams ended up being punished for playing what was later deemed as a ‘match of convenience’.

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Meanwhile, all the clubs involved – Nania, Okwawu, Mariners and Mighty Jets – were handed various punishments after being found guilty of match-fixing. The Ghana Football Association demoted all four clubs to Division 3, fined them $20,000 each, while the players who participated in the two promotion deciders, 46 in all, were suspended for the remainder of the season and the campaign after.

The play-offs were subsequently replayed, with Zaytuna United, Fair Point FC, Kade Hotspurs and Seven United replacing the banned quartet, after which Zaytuna won the group to seal qualification to the Ghana Premier League.

Officials of all four clubs involved in the scandal were also banned from all football-related activities, but Abedi ‘Pele Ayew, the owner, manager and bankroller of Nania, appealed the decision.

“My contention is that while the scoreline may raise eyebrows, it does not provide irrefutable proof that the match was fixed,” he told the BBC. “I will go wherever I can, to get justice, as we have been banned on conjecture.”

The former Olympic Marseille forward and three-time African Footballer of the Year maintained that “there was no evidence that before, during or after the match, the officials of Okwawu United and myself and/or any of my officials engaged in any form of discussion or even camaraderie – nor did any such thing ever take place.”

He continued: “At the height of my career and even that of Maradona or the legendary Pele, it is very possible to record that score against a team featuring six players and a seventh in goal who is not a natural goalkeeper.”

Then, rather cheekily, Ayew added: “Maybe my strikers should be educated that when they are next playing with a superior numerical advantage, they should refrain from scoring more goals to avoid being banned.”

Mea culpa!

After months of back and forth legal tussle, Ayew’s ban was lifted upon appeal. That of the players, though, was upheld, while the fine slapped on the clubs was reduced. The time spent in court had ground football in Ghana to a halt, with the start of the domestic season delaying in the process. For three months there was no football activity due to the blowback from this infamous match-fixing scandal.

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Ghana football has had its fair share of match-fixing scandals. The game is much better with free-flowing football and goals, but no one wants to witness a match that does not accommodate football’s competitive spirit.

While Nania, Okwawu, Mariners and Mighty Jets were dealt with for their actions in 2007, it would be utopia to think clubs in the country have stayed clear of playing matches of convenience.

In July, on the final day of the 2020/21 Ghana Premier League season, Ashanti Gold and Inter Allies became the latest clubs to be involved in a match-fixing scandal. Ashanti Gold were guaranteed to finish in mid-table and Allies already relegated. The former went ahead to win 7-0.

The scoreline alone wouldn’t have raised eyebrows but the manner in which the goals came were shocking, after two deliberate own goals were scored by Allies defender Hashmin Musah.

Musah was introduced in the second half with the score at 5-0, and he put the ball in his own net – not once but twice – to increase the tally to 7-0. Explaining his crazy actions after the game, he said he had overheard that a 5-1 scoreline had been “pre-arranged” and bets placed to that effect. In his defense, Musah said he, therefore, had to deliberately score those own goals to foil the alleged match-fixing plan.

“Inter Allies came with only 16 players for the game,” Nuhu Adams, the venue media officer for the Len Clay Stadium, which hosted the game, told Pulse.com.gh. “The game was quite competitive until the defender decided to score the two own goals.

“But even before those two own goals, there were two other goals that Ashanti Gold scored that you can clearly blame the goalkeeper. These were goals that the goalkeeper could’ve saved but he allowed the balls to enter the net.”

Videos of this embarrassing episode have since gone viral, with the Daily Mail, MSN Sports, Kick Off Magazine and other international media outlets broadcasting it on their platforms. The FA, though, has been quick to charge the participants in this shameful act.

The President of Ashanti Gold, Kweku Frimpong, and the CEO of the club, Emmanuel Frimpong, have both been charged on three counts of misconduct for match manipulation. Musah, the Inter Allies player who deliberately put the ball in his own net, has also been charged on four counts of misconduct. Meanwhile, two other players of Allies and 10 players of Ashanti Gold are also facing charges from the FA.

Investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ ‘Number 12’ exposé in 2018 was supposed to perform surgery on Ghana football, but it seems the game is yet to completely get rid of the bad eggs. If there’s any consolation, though, the strong words of Ghana FA President Kurt Okraku should offer hope for the future. “Our football has been attacked by faceless cowards. It is my responsibility and that of the Executive Council to defend the passion of the nation. Everybody who has played a part [in match-fixing] will face it,” Okraku charged in August.

“We will clean our sport and bring confidence to a sport that feeds me and all of us, a sport that gives hope and inspiration to the entire 30 million people of this country. If you are here and you know that you played a part, just be ready!”

Hope is a very powerful thing, but will it be enough to curb this canker?