My invitation to the Ethics Committee

Referee Issaka Afful in Medeama-Kotoko match. 

Not that I’m a perfectionist. I’ve never wanted to be. I don’t want everything to be perfect with me. That’s not possible but last Thursday, I was hurt; I was emotionally bruised sitting in front of the Ghana Football Association (GFA)’s Ethics Committee.

I can’t explain my feeling but thinking through it, I suspect my own standards pronounced a guilty verdict on me before the committee sitting. Not even the calmness and the palpable  show of maturity and respect by the committee altered the morose feeling I had within. Again, I’m not perfect. I won’t boast but I’ve to say that I try with difficulty to be honest to myself.

People ought to be responsible and be ready to provide evidence to substantiate claims they make on anything. Having lived with that conviction, how I was going to be comfortable, sitting in front of the Ethics Committee and not having enough material to authenticate my position that, to win matches in the Ghana Premier League, you have to bribe referees.

The above was so avoidable. That remark, made on a Kumasi based radio station, is what compelled the esteemed Ethics Committee to invite me, to help them rid the game of corruption. Based upon my conviction, I say that, it’s one thing drawing a conclusion with strong feelings and observations, and a totally different thing, having hardcore evidence.

Not that I haven’t known the foregoing. I actually know it, except that, Referee Issaka Afful’s awful performance in the Medeama-Kotoko match at Tarkwa pushed me to say something I wouldn’t have admitted if someone else had said it. At the Ethics Committee, aspects of the audio recording was played to my hearing. I neither doubted the audio nor its content.

I however had to explain my claim. Events which characterised that match day ten league fixture, which Kotoko lost 2-1, were difficult to understand. I told the committee of how our Accra Representative and Premier League Board (PLB) member, Thomas Boakye Agyeman was slapped by a Medeama operative for no justifiable cause.

I recounted how our photojournalist, Gideon Boakye Botwe was barred from the match despite having the GFA’s media accreditation card. I also mentioned Referee Afful’s dubious penalty to Medeama. I recalled how the referee allowed play to continue for three minutes when Michael Akuffu lied on the pitch injured. One of our medical personnel, sensing danger, rushed onto the pitch to save the player’s life only to be given the marching off orders by the referee.

These developments, especially the referee’s behaviour baffled me. My claim was that, the referee’s attitude was unfathomable. If he hadn’t been financially influenced to cheat us, his level of incompetence was incomprehensible. The committee disagreed. I made a categorical statement, which couldn’t be justified, they said. I couldn’t say anything to the contrary. They were better positioned to determine what’s right and wrong upon my explanation.  

They admitted the challenges our game is facing. Those challenges would however be compounded if unguarded statements would be made by people who should know better, said the committee members who took turns to advise me. Their advice hit me in the face although they weren’t harsh. I’ve a confession. The Ethics Committee we hear of in the media, isn’t the Ethics Committee I met.

This is a committee that radiates maturity and respect. Of course, that’s the GFA’s Ethics Committee. We can’t expect less. Presentations by the fine personalities I met, left me in no doubt that, inside the GFA’s corridors, there are good things we don’t know or hear. Maybe, I had to appear before the Ethics Committee to come back and say this or learn more.  

Some of our views on the FA, its personnel and operations are often ill-informed. Thomas Boakye Agyeman and NCC spokesman, Michael Nkansah, who were there with me, spoke of how I’ve often backed the PLB on the development of the domestic league. I won’t change. Going forward, I will be more circumspect and still be critical of the ills in our game.

I know not what the committee’s decision will be but that lesson, the lesson that, drawing conclusions on feelings and observations are in fact, different, from possessing water-tight, incontrovertible evidence, has been reinforced. I’ve learnt it again. I thank the Ethics Committee.

Clubs for sale: the problem is self-inflicted

Medeama's owners say the team is for sale.

News of Medeama and Berekum Chelsea being up for sale didn’t come as a surprise to me, even though, I found it disappointing that, two good clubs that have been with us for some time, were about folding up, if not giving up the fight for lack of funds.

On a number of the Facebook Pages where I read that news item – shared links – the comments by readers left me more disappointed. The sermons on how Ghana football was collapsing and how many more clubs would soon be sold by their owners dominated what I found to be stained, pessimistic view of Ghana football particularly by young people, who otherwise, should be positive, exuding optimism and critically examining the problem to offer solutions and not constant, caustic criticism that takes us nowhere.

I agree that a lot of things are wrong in Ghana. For instance, I have wondered why a lot of leaders in public service continue to fail at managing the smallest of things put in their care. So I admit that, not many things, including leadership are in a good state of affairs in our beloved country. 

Football and sports in general are no exceptions. There continues to be confounding rows over money for national team players before or after international matches. The various tiers of league football in Ghana are suffering. Clubs can’t pay their players and these same clubs have nothing specific in place to either measure their progress or ensure their survival.

I refuse to talk about the other sporting disciplines. Some of them are in sorrier state than that of football. Yet, in the midst of the dire situation, hopelessness or inconsolably describing the problems doesn’t provide any solution. The solution, in my view, lie in making managers of the game aware of the way out of the pit they have been trapped in.

From where I sit, Ghanaian football clubs are not suffering because there are no straws they can hold onto; they are struggling to survive due to structural deficiencies, lack of policy guidelines or direction, ill-planning, absence of ambition and sheer impatience.

In today’s organised business world, nothing happens by stroke of luck. Institutions in Ghana that are making it in our so-called unfavourable business setting, attribute their successes, no matter how small, to careful planning; absolute faith in their plans and the resolve to execute those plans irrespective of the prevailing economic challenges.

Most of our football clubs are not doing any of the above. I won’t mention names but I ask: How many Ghanaian football clubs in the various upper and lower tier leagues are properly structured? How many have clearly laid out plans – detailing their management structure; their business plan, what they seek to achieve, in what time space and with what personnel?

Elsewhere (and I’m not going to Europe but staying right in Africa), it’s very easy to point to these things, often seen as abstract and irrelevant, yet so important to the survival of football clubs in this modern era. We can for example, identify the successes of some African clubs on the administrative level, the same way we can finger-point their achievements on the pitch.

Is it the same situation in Ghana?

I believe, it’s so easy if not cheap to blame President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kwesi Nyantakyi and the organisation he heads, for not providing the required leadership to help our clubs. Assuming that blame is even legitimate, we may have to ask if the GFA, which Kwesi Nyantakyi heads, is a separate entity made up of people, different from those at our various football clubs. Whether or not these people are different; the question that begs an answer is: Season in, season out, do our clubs do anything to better their lot?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Nyantakyi, Nii Lante feud unnecessary

Almost 20 years ago when I started reading newspapers and keenly followed news and current affairs, my favourite sports paper was Kwabena Yeboah, the Writer’s Africa Sports. Aided by my mum, coming by newspapers generally wasn’t difficult. And when I could afford them myself with the money given to me for school, Africa Sports particularly benefited from me.

I was about 15 years. I remember reading independent-minded write-ups by the Writer himself; Kofi Opare-Addo, Karl Tuffour and other writers whose names I’ve forgotten. Later on, articles and stories by Michael Oti Adjei and the late Tony Owusu Amofa became like my lesson notes.

I hardly missed an edition which had the stories and opinion pieces of these two. Those were the days that, I read of Black Star players paying their own airfares to represent Ghana. Those were the days that I read that, the GFA and indeed the Ministry of Youth and Sports couldn’t afford Economy Class tickets for national team players, not to talk of Business Class ones.

Reports of such humiliating stories in Africa Sports were unbiased. The reader would end up learning something new and further, pass informed judgement. No disrespect to the Writer, Kwabena Yeboah; but he’s the only one that can best explain the demise of Africa Sports.

And it’s not only Africa Sports that has been dead. The practice of Black Star players footing the bills of their air trips has as well been dead years back. It’s not difficult to tell you why. Anyone who has closely followed Ghana football over the last two decades will agree without stress that, the current administration at the Ghana Football Association (GFA), led by Kwesi Nyantakyi has done well transforming the Black Stars into a global brand.

Questions over their management of domestic football always come up but under their tenure, the Black Stars have undoubtedly become attractive that, degrading stories of players paying their own airfares ended long ago. But now we are being told that, Dede Ayew would be paying for the air tickets of seven players when they come for the AFCON qualifier against Rwanda.

We’re told that, Sports Minister, Nii Lante Vanderpuye says his Ministry doesn’t have the money to carter for the tickets. The Ministry wants to use their limited resources on other things. GFA Spokesman, Ibrahim Sannie Daara told Accra based Happy FM that, some of the players have opted to pay for their teammates. Is that how low and populist we want to be?

Sannie, my senior colleague, ought to know better. Even if that populist decision is right, how long will Dede Ayew be taking up the responsibilities of the state? Let’s face it: We’ve come to this point not because Ghana is so poor that, it can’t fund activities of her senior national team.

We’re here only because of the bad blood between the GFA and the Minister. The Minister and the GFA should spare Ghanaians their name-calling in the media; sit around tables like men; discuss their differences maturely lest their rift would soon hurt our football fatally.

Isn’t it true that, the conflict between the GFA and the Minister takes new dimensions every week? It’s pathetic that, the people caught in this vicious, unnecessary media-war, each trying to look good in the eyes of the public, don’t see the embarrassment they causing the nation.

Leaders must not be mean towards each other when all that’s expected from them are solutions to problems. Please, Hon. Nii Lante Vanderpuye and Kwesi Nyantakyi; you obviously have issues with how things have been handled by either by of you. The public knows it. You can’t hide it. Your feud is unnecessary. The path you have both taken to resolve it isn’t the best. Get over chilled drinks on a table; sit, openly talk; iron out your differences and save Ghana. 

PLB reaction justified

PLB Chairman, Ashford Tettey-Oku with (mic) at an event. 

The Honourable Sports Minister, Nii Lante Vnaderpuye managed to get all of us talking throughout last week about the Ghana Premier League and its attractiveness or otherwise. The Minister, in an interview with Asempa Sports said, the Ghana Premier League wasn’t as attractive as it should be. That view, expressed by the Sports Minister was reported by almost all online news outlets and radio stations nationwide.

I didn’t hear the Minister on Asempa FM making that pronouncement. I however read quotations attributed to him and one of the reports I read didn’t present the Minister’s quotations as clearly as the man put them out, therefore giving the impression that, the Minister made a categorical statement that, our league wasn’t or isn’t attractive.

I’m not here to teach journalism but it’s worthy of note that, we always report or quote authorities appropriately otherwise we run the risk of misinforming, misreporting if not misrepresenting these authorities to create wrong impressions for our audience. Having made this point, let me move on to address the substantive issue.

For many, once the honourable Minister didn’t make a blanket statement that, our league is unattractive, it was rash for the Premier League Board (PLB) to respond with their lengthy press release; detailing why the Minister was palpably. The Ghana Football Association (GFA) President, Kwesi Nyantakyi subsequently in a Starr FM interview reacted to the Minister’s claim among other issues, saying that, Hon. Nii Lante’s remark was unjustifiable.

In my view, the PLB didn’t rash. Their quick response was necessary. Their brand, no matter how it is, had been unfairly touched – perhaps by the premier sports authority in the country and that, any remark by such authority, particularly if it was disapproving couldn’t be glossed over. That’s why I see the PLB’s immediate response as one that was good and timely.

“Any enthusiastic follower of the Ghana Premier League will firmly disagree with the Minister's claim that the league is unappealing. The PLB wishes to put on record for the information of the Honourable Sports Minister that, the GPL is the most attractive sporting product in the country, in terms of organisation, quality, patronage and media coverage” said the PLB’s statement.

“As the torchbearer of sports development in Ghana, the PLB expects the Minister's public comments to inspire investor-confidence in football” it added. I will reiterate that point. No matter how genuine the Minister’s observation was (and still is), his remarks, because of the high office he occupies, should be the type that do not impair the image of our league.

As the PLB noted, a good part of revenue from league matches are paid to the Sports Ministry through the National Sports Authority (NSA) which the NSA normally use to maintain the various stadia in the country besides funding some of their events and activities. Therefore, the best well-placed people like the Minister should do must be to help make the league better. In that regard, the mutual benefits will be bigger. 

Knowing the challenges the GPL face vis-à-vis the strenuous efforts football clubs in the country have been making to survive; I will be the last person to say that, the current situation is desirable. It’s not. Yet if I have anything to offer to improve the situation, mine would be to make outsiders see the good attempts our clubs are making and why they need more support.

It’s now so common to find people who claim to be passionate about the domestic league making so much noise about the fact that, our Premier League has no headline sponsor. They say that to give the impression that, without sponsorship, our league is a useless competition.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t report or comment on the good things absent in our league. I’m only arguing that, we serve no one’s interest but rather destroy what’s already in our hands anytime we become so caustic about league, to the extent that, some people can’t see anything good in or about our competition.

Again, I’m not saying we should glorify mediocrity. I’m rather reminding us, in conclusion that, with how far we have come; there’s more we can do if we remain optimistic about our league. 

Anti-violence crusade…

Police vehicle waiting for referees at the stadium 

It’s not for nothing that in the past two weeks, management’s corner, published every Friday in this paper has focused on hooliganism. I’m not part of management but reading the two articles, the second part of which published last Friday, it’s been easy to observe management’s abhorrence for acts that bring the name and image of the game into shame.

How ironic that at a time when management has been preaching peace and also condemning hooliganism with vehemence, some supporters, obviously disappointed with refereeing decisions have been showing their frustration and anger in an unacceptable way.

Prior to the acts that characterised the aftermath of the Kotoko-Aduana Stars match, some disgruntled supporters roughened journalists at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, apparently for expressing a divergent view on a decision by the referee in the Kotoko-Dreams FC match.

Management issued a press release to condemn the attack on the journalists and there were media reports indicating that, the fans who allegedly attacked the journalists have been arrested by the Kumasi Police. It’s always and naturally difficult talking about a wrongdoing doing when friends or relatives are involved yet it’s important we remind ourselves that, lives are precious and state property should be protected.

No decent, civilised society endorse violence. Like management reiterated in their article, football can’t thrive on violence. Football is to entertain us and while we derive fun from it, we shouldn’t forget that, football has also become big business and that hooliganism has the potential of killing both the fun and business that football offers people.

Through football, hundreds if not thousands of young men and women who would have hopelessly been on street, have been employed even if their wages or salaries are nothing to write home about. Our Premier League, for example, has 16 teams competing. By the Ghana Football Association (GFA)’s directive, each of the 16 clubs register 30 players.

That gives us 480 active young men training and playing over nine months every year.

Do we know what would have happened to these young men if there was no football in Ghana? Each of the 16 teams also have coaches and technical assistants – undertaking different assignments. The teams, in addition, have people at their secretariats; drivers, security men and many other people tasked with jobs that, no matter how meagre their salaries are, they go home with something that supports their lives one way or the other.

This is why anything that has the capacity to destroy football like violence shouldn’t be entertained. We should at all times resist the temptation to express our displeasure violently. Violence never pays. Where violence lives, there’s always harm and destruction.

While preaching against violence, it’s necessary that, refereeing issues are as well given attention. Cheating, unfairness and injustice breed violence in any human environment. Where and when people feel cheated or unfairly treated; they are bound to show their dissatisfaction in any means possible particularly when they lack the power to take on authority the appropriate way.

We shouldn’t forget that, not all of us would react gently in the face of provocation or injustice. Referees have a duty to be fair. It hurts when teams prepare with hopes of winning only to lose not as a result of bad performance but a referee's ill-judgement.

Some referees are bad. I’m often left to wonder if they purposely underperform or that, they are just incompetent. I will refrain from mentioning names but our referees seriously need to be professional. I have seen Kotoko supporters applauding referees and damning their players in times of defeat; that’s to tell you that, football fans just don’t wake up to show their frustration and anger at referees.

Kotoko have lost matches at home his season yet there were no acts of hooliganism. I charge every Kotoko supporter to shun violence; please resist the temptation to be violent. Encourage others to be of good behaviour at the stadium or any other public place. Let’s all play our role effectively to derive the best from football. Let’s not take the law into our own hands. Let’s be law-abiding people; let’s stay away from violence at the stadium. Let’s cheer our team and enjoy the game. 

It isn’t cooked food yet

Kotoko players celebrate their win over Liberty at Dansoman. 

In my last write-up, I talked about how the 2015/16 Premier League was nowhere near closure and why it was just too early for supporters of any of the top four teams to start celebrating.

I went further on radio to share why I felt Kotoko were still in the reckoning and indeed, why I was also convinced that, quality-wise, Hearts of Oak were no better than Kotoko and that, should Kotoko start winning, pressure would mount more on any of the top three teams.

People with sympathies for Hearts of Oak didn’t like my submissions on Asempa Sports. Some wondered why I could describe Hearts as poor when on the league table, they were and are still well-placed than Kotoko. It’s fair for people to always disagree with you on the basis of statistics but statistics no matter what they show are not sacrosanct.

Good pundits often look beyond statistics and also suppress their sentiments. They focus on what the statistics may not be revealing to simple minds. I was quite confident of Kotoko being convincing at Dansoman after the Dreams FC struggle, not only because I work for Kotoko but also because I had seen the potential of the team and could vouch for their comeback.

Kotoko haven’t been so convincing but in terms of performance, the team isn’t as weak as some want us to believe. Again, given the difficulties the team faced at the beginning of the season and how their recovery to, for example, place second at the end of the first round, it was in order to believe that, once the coaches and players accept criticisms, and work seriously on their faults, bouncing back was only natural.

And guess what? Isn’t it intriguing that, a team that was ridiculed in every available media space in the country at the end of match day six (when Kotoko were 16th) are now hot title contenders? What were the other teams doing when Kotoko was struggling? The answer to that question is quite simple.

The other teams no matter their strength and quality, normally don’t come up to our standard. For me, you will be naïve if not ignorant of trends in our Premier League to write off Kotoko as a likely winner of this season’s competition. That doesn’t mean the Porcupines have arrived yet.

From where I sit, we don’t have a cooked food yet. We seem to have had our ingredients right and the preparation as well as the boiling of our food went well at Dansoman against Liberty Professionals as we secured an emphatic 2-0 win but there are six more matches to be played.

The amount of work left is huge with as the six matches left have the potential to determine our fate. The first among these matches is the date with Aduana Stars on Wednesday. The remaining matches – Hasaacas, Berekum Chelsea, Medeama, Ashgold and WAFA will all be difficult encounters; let’s not deceive ourselves. It’s the more reason we must win when we have the chance to do so. Victory against Aduana Stars will add so much to our ambition.

The remaining matches are what my colleague, Kofi Achampong has termed as title winning matches. I have no fear whatsoever that, all things being equal, the Porcupines can battle all the teams mentioned above to triumph. They must do exactly that to make in the last days of the competition more thrilling.

I’m of the opinion that, it’s all right to commend the players for their impressive show at Dansoman but please, let’s get back to work immediately. We have an unfinished business, which is to perform well, win and overtake teams ahead of us on the league table. We can’t compromise on that or our desire to be champions.

What’s important is winning even though we just can’t do away with enjoying the good feeling that comes with sweet victories like the one at Dansoman. We have to cut short the celebration and spend time reviewing the game; looking back on all that went on with the objective of correcting our mistakes and improving. When that’s done, we will celebrate more soon.

Title race far from over

Frank Sarfo Gyamfi soars above all in Dreams FC's defence. 

Kotoko's victory over Dreams FC in Kumasi on Sunday have sparked a litany of arguments over whether or not Referee Nathan Anafo who handled the match was fair. There have been questions over the so-called soft penalty he awarded Kotoko in the last minutes of the game. 

I don’t know what a soft penalty is. What I know is that, there is too much hypocrisy in our system. Until, you become a victim of poor officiating, you wouldn’t know what it’s when other club officials are complaining about referees’ bad performance.

Referee Nathan Anafo exercised good judgement at that crucial moment. He should be commended instead of being condemned. Now, the results of the weekend’s matches have given weight to remarks that, the league competition is far from over. First of all, Hearts were humiliated by WAFA; Wa All Stars posted a convincing win over Bechem United; Aduana Stars lost away to Sekondi Hasaacas and as mentioned earlier, Kotoko beat Dreams FC.

WAFA’s thrashing of Hearts of Oak at Sogakope wasn’t the least surprising. I had predicted elsewhere that, there was no way the Phobians would return from WAFA’s base unscathed, especially when the academy side has proven almost impregnable on their artificial turf at home. In addition to that, Hearts, despite having more points and also being well-placed, haven’t been playing well and as a result, I had seen their downfall at Sogakope.   

Hearts’ loss was good for Kotoko especially when we earned a hard 1-0 victory at home to Dreams FC. The win completed the double over the league’s new boys besides giving Kotoko the chance to close in on teams that have taken a fine lead on the league table. Wa All Stars, who have actually been in and out of the first position this season, dislodged Hearts with their emphatic 2-0 triumph in their date with Bechem United.

Aduana Stars, even in the 2009/10 season when they were league winners, didn’t appear strong outside their hostile Dormaa Park. Therefore, Aduana Stars’ 2-1 fall in Sekondi was nothing surprising too. In consequence, the results, recorded by Wa All Stars, Hearts of Oak, Aduana Stars and Kotoko, for me, opens the race for the league title a little wider.

It will be interesting to see the results of match day 24 fixtures. On Saturday, we will be in Dansoman, Accra against Liberty Professionals who are presently 8th on the table. Liberty’s position matters not, since they have lately proven to be a thorn in Kotoko’s flesh.

Last season, Liberty hammered Kotoko 3-1 at Dansoman after we had taken an early lead.

It was a painful defeat particularly when we had shown positive signs in the early minutes.

I’m hopeful that, Kotoko will this time battle Liberty victoriously to enhance our chances of winning the league title which is still within reach. Those who dared called this season’s league for Hearts are quickly revising their scripts. They must because Kotoko aren’t giving up.  

Our team just have to lift their performance. Things have to change. We need to win our matches. We need to progress. The so-called virgin trophy unveiled by the Premier League Board (PLB) last Thursday can be in our trophy cabinet in Kumasi if we double our effort. Between now and September when the league will end, there will more movements.

Definitely some teams will lose while others win. There will be wins and losses to ensure these movements on the league table. It’s my fervent wish that, Kotoko’s movement will be upwards and that, we will be crowned champions eventually. What a reward that would be for Coach Michael Osei and his team given the kind of season they have had. Anything is possible. The team needs to work hard. Their hard work will surely pay off.