Pampering hooligans...

A referee beaten by irate fans 

It’s harsh to say that the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and police personnel sent to some league centres to ensure security are “complicit” when it comes to the issue of hooliganism.

But watching pictures of how some referees have been mercilessly beaten by miscreants parading as fans, I can’t help but conclude that, the GFA and our police stand accused.

I’ve said before and will say it again that, not until the scoundrels who go to match venues to visit their sadistic acts on precious lives and properties are arrested, prosecuted and jailed if found guilty, this downright nonsense of individuals misbehaving at match venues won’t stop.

It’s shockingly disgusting how the Police will be sent to match centres and reprehensible acts of violence will take place yet there will be no arrests although at some of these match venues, cameras would have captured fans on rampage, physically attacking people.

I’m not talking about replaying recordings on CCTV cameras to identify misbehaving fans for instance at the Accra Sports Stadium to go after them later. I don’t even believe in that, since overtime, our weak national identification system has either made that exercise impossible or that those in-charge of the CCTV cameras at venues which have it have no faith in the devices they are to manage. 

What I’m referring to is the police personnel’s incredible failure to physically arrest hooligans at match centres despite being present and indeed being witnesses to these primitive acts of violence. I have been to places like the Accra Sports Stadium, the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, the Len Clay Sports Stadium, the Dormaa Ahenkro Park and the Berekum Golden City Park over the last five years and seen violence being perpetrated by a handful of fans with police personnel detailed at these venues looking on helplessly. In the end, no arrests were made. The hooligans went home “justified”.

Why shouldn’t I believe that, the police haven’t helped much in dealing with hooliganism? As for the GFA, it’s horrifying that, for a country that has witnessed a stadium disaster that killed 127 people in hours, the FA is still not strong in the fight against the same acts that senselessly snuffed lives.

I can’t think of anything except to say that, the FA’s continuously late and frail response to acts of violence in our game is contributing to the near-fatal events we have seen lately. If this worrying attitude of the GFA doesn’t change, it will one day be better if they remain silent on violence. After all, their delayed punishment will do little in halting if not minimizing the shameful incidents.

A female beaten footballer receiving treatment at the hospital. 

Saddick Adams of Atinka FM in a recent Facebook post listed acts of hooliganism in our game. Check the list: “A little over a month in the various Ghana football leagues; a camera man has been beaten to pulp at Bibiani. He almost lost one eye and [he’s still] receiving treatment. A club president was attacked by fans in Kumasi for wearing a smock. Referees were accused of cheating a home team and pelted with missiles in Accra. [A radio] presenter was assaulted in Techiman for being biased against local club, leaving him almost unconscious.

A female footballer went into coma for over ten hours after home fans and players assaulted her in Tamale. Players and officials were beaten by home fans in Akyem Techiman because their goalkeeper saved a penalty. A coach and two fans were shot with a gun in Tamale when riots broke up. A referee and his assistant missed death by inches when they were beaten with clubs and chains at Kwahu Praso, leaving center ref with deep head cut and facial wounds”.

Are we living in jungle? Going through the list and gauging what the police and the GFA’s action on these violent incidents have been, my conclusion is that, collectively the football association, the police and the entire state; we have been pampering hooligans. That shouldn’t be the case. If it’s the GFA’s laws that must be amended to deal with hooligans severely, please, let’s do it!

No one has the right to assault, maim and kill in the name of football or anything. Let’s get better security at match venues. Let’s start arresting hooligans. Let’s put them before the law.

Let’s jail them if found guilty. Let’s name and shame convicted hooligans. Let football clubs embark on aggressive public education on hooliganism. That way we will be back on track in fight violence in our game. For now, we are pampering hooligans, sadly!