Policing at our league centres ...

Policemen take their position at a Kotoko-Hearts game

Sometimes I am afraid of the Police. My fear isn’t the fear of arrest. It’s rather the fear of the needless and usually brute force they apply in addressing very simple matters like what happened at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium last Saturday, when Kumasi Asante Kotoko hosted Inter Allies on match day 26 of the First Capital Plus Premier League.

A reporter from Asempa FM, Frank Agyam was wounded by a Police officer for no good reason. Prior to that, Joy FM’s reporter, Benedict Owusu had also been heckled by the Police in his attempt to seek explanations as to why reporters were being denied access to players and coaches after the game. One officer (named withheld) categorically told me that journalists will be roughened if they dare challenge the Police.

That statement amazed me. I looked at the officer’s name tag intently and quietly walked away. Noticing that I had taken a good look at his tag, he re-called me to “properly” explain himself. There was nothing to explain, I told him. Eventually, no journalist was allowed access to the two teams and there was no organised post-match conference for the media.

Saturday wasn’t the first time Police officers at the Accra Stadium had acted the way they did. There have been numerous instances of Police heckling at the stadium and I have always wondered why the Police act in that manner. It is as if the officers are always in a hurry to leave so they prevent journalists seeking to interview players and coaches from getting to where the team buses are packed since that would require that they wait till the interview sessions are over before they escort the teams out of the stadium.

Given the situation where the media have to literally beg coaches and players for post-match interviews because post-match conferences are not organised or badly organised, journalists are forced to find other means of reaching players and coaches after matches. It becomes worrying when in the line of a journalist’s duty he ends up being wounded for no good reason.

Police officers at the stadium shouldn’t be hostile to journalists. Journalists equally have to respect the Police. These days, our league centres are recording too many incidents of violence. We must therefore encourage the Police to stem the violent incidents at the stadium.

At Sekondi where Kotoko played Hasaacas last week, journalists were compelled to buy tickets despite showing their accreditation cards at the gate. There was unhealthy confrontation. To safeguard his life, my colleague, Bernard, for example, had to buy a ticket to cover the match.

How does anyone justify such an incident? The safety of life and property at the stadium is important. However, under hostile circumstances like those that have been enumerated here, the threat of violence becomes real. That is where one expects the Police to act and act decisively.

The Baba Yara Sports Stadium was closed last season as a result of crowd violence. This season, the same thing has happened again. Kotoko have been outside Kumasi playing its home matches. Kotoko are thus paying for the rowdiness of a handful of supporters. Painfully, these rowdy supporters for whose actions Kotoko are ‘suffering’ were not arrested by the Police.

Why hooligans are left off the hook while clubs continue to be punished only shows how unprepared we appear to fight hooliganism in our game. I support any FA regulation or decision that calls clubs to order but there can be no justification for football hooligans to go unpunished when they remain the real actors of the misdeed which leads to clubs being sanctioned.

I don’t know Policing methods but I doubt if I require security expertise to know that, if a football fan beats or assaults a referee like it was reported in Kumasi, that fan must be arrested. From close observation, Police officers at the stadium are usually quick to guide referees from the pitch to their changing rooms but supporters who dare attack referees are left off the hook.

Why must that happen? The Police must go the extra mile to arrest fans who physically attack others as a result of anger, disappointment or whatever the reason may be. No matter what their challenges have been, the Ghana Police Service does a good job.

Their service to the country can’t be downplayed merely on the basis that, in recent times, they have not arrested football hooligans. Having said that, it is right, to urge the Ghana Police Service to deal drastically with hooligans. It is high time the Police reviewed their Policing methods at the stadium.

Back to Referee Andoh’s death and the autopsy

The Late Referee Kyei Andoh

I was one of the happiest people when it was announced that an autopsy was to take place to establish what actually ended the young life of Assistant Referee Kyei Andoh, who, days before his death had been beaten mercilessly by irate fans at the Bordie Park following a lower division match between Gold Stars and Naajoe United.

Autopsies don’t restore lives. They don’t bring the dead back to life yet when done correctly, they usually help relatives of the dead to have a good idea of what might have killed their loved one. By implication, the autopsy of Referee Andoh was to help his family and the whole world know if the callous beating he suffered days before he died was really what killed him.

The report came out last week. The news was that, the 21-year-old referee’s death couldn’t be linked to the beastly act of the incensed football fans. I was shocked not by that revelation but rather by what followed. That a member of the Referees Association of Ghana, Francis Tachie-Menson rubbished the autopsy report, saying that the GFA had a hand in the report.

How can anybody make such an allegation and no proof is asked of him? You neither have to be a friend nor a relative of the late referee to sympathize with his family. You only have to be human. You have to be sensitive to understand the family’s loss, pain and disappointment. I cannot make any useful commentary on the autopsy report except to urge the GFA to let the world know what it makes of the allegations leveled against it by Referee Tachie-Mensson.

I don’t know which one came first but aside Referee Tachie-Menson’s position, the family of the late Referee Andoh has also cast doubts over the credibility of the autopsy report. And we think this is also not serious enough to warrant a response? The GFA shouldn’t be quite. The issue no doubt has already soiled the image of our local game.

I won’t hold brief for the family of the late referee but I maintain that they ought not to be pathologists before they can ask questions about the report. Therefore those questioning their apparent lack of confidence in the report shouldn’t just condemn them. The family deserved to be heard at least. Their sentiments must be examined to see whether it has any value.

The assault, not the death of the referee was shameful. It shouldn’t have been allowed to happen. But why wouldn’t it happen when we have a football society that has brazenly failed to deal drastically with hooligans? I saw photos of the Bordie Park which has been banned and I laughed because that park looks like an abandoned school park, with no inner-perimeter.

Of what effect is the ban on the team that plays there? I have been wondering why we will even allow FA-sanctioned matches to take place on that Park with virtually no security. But again, why won’t we allow it? Our football has a misfortune. Some FA sanctioned games, even Premier League matches are played at centres where the lives of players, coaches, referees and spectators usually come under threat and somehow we all see it as normal.

I won’t necessarily blame the FA for the ill-fate Referee Andoh suffered but it is obvious the GFA along with the Police haven’t dealt with football hooliganism well enough. The Police must let hooligans know that Ghana is not a lawless state. The country has laws and those laws must be allowed to work. Those laws must drastically deal with hooligans where necessary.

Was any arrest made at the Bordie Park for example? Has any hooligan be arrested and prosecuted in recent times? Regardless of where football hooligans rear their ugly faces, they should be arrested, prosecuted and jailed if found guilty. Until that is done, I insist that, we will not make any headway in combating the menace of football hooliganism.

In addition to dealing drastically with hooligans, the time has come for the Regional Football Associations (RFAs) to also take a critical look at the sort of venues they approve for matches. Unless we want to continue endangering lives, venues where the safety and security of lives cannot be guaranteed should not be endorsed.

Again, unless we want to ruin lives, venues where the Police may not be able to effectively manage crowd violence shouldn’t be approved. If we care that much about lives and if we are that serious about the game, it should not be hard for us to deal with lawless football fans.

Is First Capital Plus Bank watching the league?

Regardless of how long it took for the 2013/2014 Premier League to have a sponsor, club owners, administrators and ardent fans of the Ghana Premier League heaved a sigh of relief when on February 4, 2014, the Ghana Football Association (GFA), announced that it had secured a five-year US$10million sponsorship deal from banking firm, First Capital Plus.

  

First Capital Plus Bank committed itself to paying US$2,000,000 every year “in three tranches with 25% paid as the first two tranches and 50% as the last tranche. The first tranche of $500,000 has already been paid to the GFA”. This news came at the time when the first round of the league had ended with many deriding the competition for its lack of sponsorship. I am not one of those who denigrate or despise the Ghana Premier League even if I will continue to criticise the way things are done by its stakeholders especially if I have a reasonable cause to do so. I have constantly argued that the Ghana Premier League is not as bad as some people always want to make it look like. It is our collective responsibility to develop it.

Irrespective of the challenges the GFA, Premier League Board (PLB), clubs and other stakeholders of the Premier League face in their bid to make it attractive, it makes little sense to me why I should spend copious energy discussing and examining every development in foreign leagues sadly to the detriment of that of Ghana. I identify so well with ours despite its associated problems. The point that, the attention paid to foreign leagues especially by our media is necessitated by commercial reasons maybe tangible but the point about massive public interest is not entirely correct. We have not as stakeholders of the Ghana Premier League, made conscious efforts to raise the standards and to also nurture and guide the public’s interest in it. That is why I am through this article appealing to media colleagues to redefine their love for foreign leagues.

FA Boss, Kwasi Nyantakyi and FCPB MD, John Mensah

I am strongly calling on the GFA, the PLB and First Capital Plus Bank to take a serious look at how to publicise and market the competition. The media cannot do the publicity alone and in fact anyhow – like just mentioning the bank’s name in radio commentaries for example. There must be a definite marketing strategy to sell the league.

I started by asking if First Capital Plus Bank is watching the Premier League. It will be a fatal case of irresponsibility if as sponsors of the competition they are not closely following developments but if they are really monitoring affairs, then perhaps it has to be brought to their attention that they have so far not done enough to make fans feel their presence. First, it is important to commend the Bank for their interest in the Ghana Premier League. Scanning through the Bank’s website, everything showed that they are in serious business. Why they will pump US$10 million into the Premier League with the glaringly flashing, dire economic indicators means that First Capital Plus Bank saw something worthy in or around our league.

But beyond that, exactly what are they doing in collaboration with the GFA, the PLB and other stakeholders to make football fans feel that they are actually sponsoring the league. For instance, when Liberty hosted Kotoko at the Carl Reindorf Park on March 16, 2014; I did not see a single pitch panel indicating that First Capital Plus Bank sponsors the Ghana Premier League.

I was surprised when a colleague drew my attention to that. I have not visited all league centres since the reputable bank came on board. My checks however reveal that some venues have their pitch panels but others do not. That information could be false but even on the basis of what I saw myself at the Carl Reindorf Park plus the general thoughts I have picked on the Bank’s association with the league vis-à-vis publicity, I think, they and the PLB have more work to do. 

Journalists have been using accreditation cards bearing the insignia of the previous sponsor. The process of issuing new accreditation cards, possibly bearing the logo and colours of First Capital Plus Bank, I know, is underway. It is therefore reasonable to assume that, because the Bank joined the sponsorship train only seven weeks ago, they need more time to settle down.

That is a fair assumption but at their current pace or work rate; I humbly submit that, First Capital Plus Bank, the PLB, the GFA and other stakeholders haven’t been convincing enough. They must wake up to the reality that they have more to do to properly market the league. If First Capital Plus Bank is indeed watching the league, then the ball is first in their court.

Arrest the hooligans; jail the guilty ones

A cartoonist impression of violence against referees

As a country very passionate about football, we have tragically failed to deal with hooliganism in our game. That is my candid opinion. I blame not just the Ghana Football Association (GFA) for that dreadful failure but also club administrators and the Police for the growing incidents of wanton violence that is dangerously ruining lives and tarnishing the image of Ghana football.

There must be an end to it now. 

In May 2001, it was at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium where 127 people died sadly because of the gross misbehavior of supporters at a Hearts-Kotoko game. Sending 127 innocent lives suddenly to their graves should have taught us the single most important lesson, that, it’s completely needless for lives to be lost as a result of football.

Check throughout the years and you will find out that no lesson has been learnt. The highly irresponsible behaviour of football fans viciously assaulting people and damaging properties still continue. It’s disgraceful. The football community must bow their heads in shame.

The late Assistant Referee Andoh

Late last week, a budding referee, Kwame Andoh Kyei died days after he was beaten by fans at Bordie in the Western Region where he officiated in a Second Division match between Gold Stars and Naa Joe. I wouldn’t comment too much on the initial media argument, that, the GFA was late in issuing a statement to express their condolences to the bereaved family talk less of them unreservedly condemning the barbaric act of the fans that beat and killed Referee Andoh.

That argument was legitimate but irrelevant now especially when the FA has eventually issued a press release, doing what the media demanded and further tasking the Western Regional Football Association to furnish it with the “full facts” of their preliminary investigation.

The critical issue is that there is increasing violence in our football. Some football fans are turning into beasts and monsters and the Police appear not to be dealing with these brazen miscreants. If I won’t, for example, escape police arrest for harming someone in a community feud, should any football fan be left off the hook for assaulting a referee or a coach?

Violence has been seen at all levels of our league competitions. In May 2013, Kotoko fans in a midweek match against Medeama in Kumasi vandalized the opponent’s team bus. Days later, Berekum Arsenal fans also destroyed Kotoko’s team bus as they also stoned police officers and Kotoko players following a league match at the notorious Golden City Park.

At the Division One level, I am told of recent incidents of violence at match venues. At the game between Techiman City and Atebubu Esperance, Referee Techimenson was brutally assaulted. The same referee was also the victim of fans’ cruelty in the match between Universal Stars and BA Stars. Kwame Tor, the goalie of Universal Star was lucky to have gone home with an eye-cut after he was stoned by an irate fan in that game at the Sunyani Coronation Park.

Another primitive stone-throwing incident was witnessed in the Bofoakwa-BA Stars game at the same venue. In Accra, the referee who was in the Danbort-Unity FC game also went home badly injured. Are we in a jungle? Is Ghana a lawless state? Where from this uncivilized behaviour?

In all the incidents cited above, the response from the GFA, club administrators and the Police was the same. The victims were treated. Fines were imposed on the offending clubs. They were banned for some weeks. No arrests were made. No prosecution. No trial. Nobody was found guilty. The culprits of these reprehensible acts in broad day light who brandished clubs, stones and other offensive weapons; vandalized buses, police cars and injured people went home free.

That is how the FA, club administrators and the Police have collectively dealt with hooliganism. The media can continue supporters’ education. The media can be advised to be professional not to incite fans with unprofessional commentaries and remarks but the callousness won’t stop if fans that perpetuate violence at the stadium are not arrested, prosecuted and jailed if found guilty. The time for the FA, club administrators and the Police to act is now.