By Ken Bediako
My good friend, now lawyer cum pilot, Ebo Bartels, and I were thrilled by the large number of intriguing jingles that dominated the airwaves during the Seoul Olympics in South Korea 1988.
We used to compile them and would be comparing notes later over “Soju” a popular Korean alcoholic beverage. Great fun to be at an Olympic Games.
The one jingle that tickled me most was “You cannot have a second chance to make a first impression”.
The other, rather trickish one, was, “Try, if you don’t succeed lower your standards”.
Dear readers, with your kind permission, I would like to recommend the second jingle to the Licencing Committee of the Ghana Football Association that has been empowered to decide which venues are suitable for Premier league matches.
With barely three weeks to kick start the 20 -23 season, the committee has determined that six of the league venues are not fit for purpose. This is really baffling, to say the least.
For the avoidance of doubt let me quote the report of this surprise verdict published in the authoritative Daily Graphic on August 14.
The headline read “Club Licencing C’ttee rejects most league centres”. Report by Kwame Larweh.
The club licencing Committee of the Ghana Football Association has rejected the Walewale Park as the home venue for Tamale based Premier League Clubs Real Tamale United and Tamale City FC.
This was after the committee had declared the Aliu Mahama Stadium in Tamale non satisfactory for usage as Premier league competition.
However, the Aliu Mahama Stadium was cleared by the same committee as being fit for purpose last season. Other venues which did not meet the committee’s required
standard for the 2022-23 season were the Golden City park in Berekum, Dawu Park, Ohene Ameyaw Park in Techiman and Akyem Oda Park for Kotoku Royals.
Four venues were also put in the category of “under construction”, apparently meaning unready for action. They are the Stadia for Bibiani Goldfields, Nsenkyire Stadium for Samartex, Dr Nanakorama Park for Nsoatreman and Nana Fosu Gyeabour park at Bechem.
The Committee has ruled that Karela United and Medeama from the Western Region will use Cape Coast Stadium as home grounds.
Asante Kotoko and King Faisal remain in Kumasi.
But four clubs, Dreams FC Accra Lions, Hearts of Oak and Great Olympics will rotate at Accra Stadium.
My immediate reaction to this directive by the GFA Committee is that they are putting too high a standard of a playing centre for
the league. The committee must be realistic enough and face the fact that, for obvious reasons, the entire nation lacks top class playing fields. We must drop the pretence that our league is that top class Until the construction of the Essipong and Aliu Mahama Stadia for Afcon 2008, only Accra and Kumasi boasted of an international class stadium.
All these football parks at places like Dormaa, Berekum, Bechem, Oda, Dawu, Tarkwa etc are community recreational play grounds developed by enthusiastic chiefs and benevolent individuals who love sports and football for that matter.
One would expect the GFA, with its usual support from FIFA, to upgrade all such pitches in the hinterland to an acceptable standard. The nature of the pitch at the so called Centre of Excellence at Prampram does not give the GFA any moral right to be rubbishing certain venues refurbished through the sweat and toil of local townsfolk.
I am suggesting that the GFA should first and foremost get experts to give a facelift to the existing playing fields to protect the players just as my favourite old club Abuakwa Susu Biribi did to the famous Tafo Rovers Park in the sixties. The next stage to be tackled would be stands for spectators. In the present economic situation, we should be strategic enough to develop our sports facilities gradually so we dont give the anti-sports people the excuse to tell us football is not a priority.
I suggest the GFA board should avoid any grandiose but hollow policies that would kill the enthusiasm of those eager to spread the game to all corners of the country.
Before the construction of Essipong Stadium, the centre of excellent football was Gyandu park where Kofi Abbrey, John Bannerman, the Paha brothers and co, stole the show. Similarly,
Tetteh Chandu, Kisco Adansi, Opeele Aboagye and Co were the wizards of the pint-sized Tafo Rovers park where they eventually rose to national fame.
It took Seth Yeboah a lot of effort to make Dawu a national league centre in1993 following the path of Fred Arnold who in 1984 made tiny Apeguso a league centre with his fighting Warriors.
Yaw Ampofo Manu, the late veteran football administrator of BA United fame would be smiling in his grave fully satisfied that his townsfolk Nsoatreman are in the premier league and are going to host legendary champions like Asante Kotoko, Hearts of Oak and Great Olympics for the first time since 1958 when the league was established.
It is my hope that the GFA would give a fair chance to all clubs not fortunate enough to inherit national stadiums as their home grounds.
It is a good trait for the GFA to aim high but if you don’t succeed the advice is to lower your standards. In other words, cut your coat according to the size of the cloth. The question however remains whether it is prudent to gate crash Accra Stadium with four clubs using the venue as home grounds.
A prominent politician once said “the debtor must nonetheless eat”.
Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.
