The plight of local football commentators

A group of local language commentators at work

Like or loathe them, local football commentators in Ghana are a different breed. I mean the radio commentators who travel across the country every season to bring live radio commentary on the Ghana Premier League to us are just special! They are special because despite all the difficulties they face on regularly basis and the continuous harsh criticism often leveled against them for the quality of their delivery, they go about their work simply undaunted.

I have not been around for a longer period but for the near-decade experience I have had in this profession; I have made interesting observations relative to local football commentary and the guys who run them. Today, on this platform I would share some of those observations. They may not be new to keen local football fans. I may also not treat the subject exhaustively which means some time soon, I will return to it.

At the Kpando Park on Sunday where Kotoko lost 0-2 to Heart of Lions in the 2013/2014 Premier League, there were commentators from different radio stations in the country. A greater number of them were from Accra and Kumasi. When the game started I counted 31 commentators at the Park. That was not surprising. Kotoko receive massive coverage in the league. That means if Heart of Lions were playing another side apart from Kotoko, there would have been the likelihood of counting far less that number of commentators at the Kpnado Park.

Thus the first observation is that most of the local football commentators love to be where Kotoko play. The reasons are not difficult to find. Kotoko is the biggest football club in Ghana. With the club’s pedigree and huge support base, practically everything on Kotoko makes news. Apart from commentators preferring to be at Kotoko matches, another observation deals with the hardships they encounter to get their work done.

Supersport commentators Ridwan Ibrahim and Benjamin W. Graham

After traveling long distances in public transport and usually on bad roads, local football commentators come face to face with the ordeal of arguing with macho men at the gates of league centres. It does not matter whether or not one has media accreditation. These macho men in their needless show of power harass and intimidate commentators perceived to be bias and they normally do that with the tacit approval of club officials.

Something like that was witnessed at Kpando on Sunday when journalists argued with security men at gate two because Heart of Lions’ communications manager had left an order that entry shouldn’t be granted to journalists with last season’s Globacom media accreditation cards. The same cards have been used since the season commenced because a circular by the FA’s communications outfit to media houses directed that those cards are used until further notice.

Why the Heart of Lions communications manager would disrespect the FA’s order was amazing. Fact is, local football commentators are neither respected by clubs nor spectators who they usually share the same stands with at centres like Kpando where commentators, in order to have a good view of the game are always forced to climb to the roof of a structure at the Park.

Neither coaches nor their players also respect local commentators. While some coaches give sometimes very outrageous excuses not to grant interviews, some of their players simply shy way. This unprofessional attitude impacts negatively on the work of commentators and the development of the game at the same time.

Local football commentators are ill-resourced whether it has to do with their media houses’ inability to provide them with the right equipment for their work or the commentators’ failure to adequately resource themselves. A mobile phone with a good battery strength, sufficient airtime, team sheets, a bottle of water and the energy to talk and most often to shout, are all what local football commentators need to run non-stop commentary especially on radio.

Akan or in fact, Twi commentators make the most noise. They shout. They overelaborate. They also exaggerate. Their colleagues who use the English language are calmer. They don’t shout. They hardly exaggerate. They rarely over-elaborate too. Why? Answers from various commentators I have interviewed on this subject point to an interesting thing, which is that, because English isn’t our mother-tongue, it is virtually impossible for commentators to shout unnecessarily while using the Queen’s language. 

There is also the view that the shouting by local football commentators is as a result of ignorance. Some also say it is as a result of poor journalistic training. Foreign football commentators do not shout and often "wet" themselves as some do here. They have perfect understanding of the job. It's difficult to disagree with that opinion yet it doesn’t rubbish everything our football commentators do. 

I have listened to some good local commentators both in Twi and English although I will quickly point out that I prefer English commentaries to that of Twi. Questions can be asked over the preparation our local commentators do before they go live on air; the quality of information they give, descriptions of events on the field and so on but I insist that we can't rubbish everything they do. There are challenges but there is no denial that our guys are doing great work. The next article will look at some of the good things done by our local commentators and of course how to address the challenges the face.