Domestic football deserves better

Kotoko players - Jackson, Adams and Dauda. 

It should have been refreshing news that the Premier League will finally kickoff on February 20, 2016 but I'm not sure it was as hours before that piece of news could settled on the minds of domestic football enthusiasts, reports emerged that, the announcement by the Emergency Committee of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) was hasty and not consultative.

Claims that some Executive Committee members of the GFA were left in the dark on discussions which paved the way for the announcement of the league start date were worrisome as that alone threatened to open a fresh page to the stalemate that has rocked domestic football organization in the country.

Reaction from notable GFA voices that, its Emergency Committee, legally committed no wrongdoing by making known when the league would start was important. Yet observing events and analyzing issues critically, those reactions by the well-placed officers of the GFA have done very little to change the near hopelessness fans feel over the delay of the league.

Naturally, complaints over the league delay and associated adverse effects should have emanated more from the quarters of our clubs, who in practical terms, bear the brunt of the current discomforting situation but the clubs not complaining that much. If they are, it's been on the quiet, or in fact, silently. That shouldn't be too difficult to understand.

In our case, I mean the Ghanaian football situation, where club officials either hold positions at the GFA or are key men in the FA's schemes of things, it will certainly be illogical to hear "friends of the FA" raising critical voices over the league delay and its accompanying problems.

Secondly, most of us in Ghana have this unpleasant attitude of failing to keep, for want of a better expression, a malfunctioning system on its toes, so much that, we will rather remain quiet than be heard loud complaining and later labeled as anti this or that! That attitude has become a sub-culture in many parts of our national life. Sadly, it has a place in our football.

For me, the announcement of the date doesn't give much joy. It doesn’t call for partying because the FA haven’t given us a complete calendar, which details its domestic football programme for 2016. I hate to be too critical and cynical too but truth be told, by furnishing us with the date as to when the Premier League will start, the GFA has only touched on the surface of a deeper problem, which is their disappointing management of domestic football.

It's good that the online player registration introduced last season as part of the club licensing has ended successfully. However by now, we should have had a comprehensive local football time-time table for the season. Now that we know when the Premier and Division One leagues will start, do we know when it will end? When will the first round of the Premier League close?

When will the FA Cup start and end? Do we know? Is there a meticulous programme to that effect? In societies that we claim to be learning from, Premier League dates are not announced without a comprehensive season programme. The Premier League Board (PLB) and the GFA must take note: their management of local football despite their good efforts still isn’t the best!

The Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) captured that succinctly in a press statement: “It’s an indictment on [our] two football regulatory bodies for their inability to maintain a fixed and predictable football calendar, as the last few Premier League seasons have been bedeviled with protracted litigation which cause delays… And its negative effect on the performance of Ghanaian clubs [in Africa]. After organizing the Premier League for over two decades... It is rather disappointing that we are still grappling with very elementary problems..." SWAG said.

Clubs may well be the ones at each other's throat. Clubs may as well be the ones who drag the FA to court but that only happens when grievances are not handled decisively and expeditiously. The failure by the FA to even accept responsibility for the present state of affairs buttresses the view that, they aren’t as interested in local football as they are in the Black Stars.

This is the time for them to change.