By Ken Bediako
Once upon a time this dear nation of ours had an astute sports administrator called Ohene Djan. You can credit him with an impeccable record of huge successes in almost all sports disciplines both home and abroad. The snag was that the man became so powerful he could take extremely controversial decisions and get away with it.
Ohene Djan openly told the media that Osagyefo President Dr Kwame Nkrumah had given him a mandate to make Ghana the showpiece of sports in Africa and that the Osagyefo himself had promised him his “personal support”. He might have been telling us the secret because the long list of highly explosive actions he took could only come from a man with heavy political backing.
Can you imagine that he unilaterally sacked fabulous Kumasi Asante Kotoko from the national football league in 1961-62 for challenging his decision to form a model club of Ghana, Real Republikans, comprising top players forcibly recruited from the existing league clubs.
Ohene Djan had unilaterally decided to form his so-called model club, in his view, would be the nucleus of the national team Black Stars, ready for any international assignment even at short notice.
Lofty idea you would say, but why forcibly rob clubs of their star players without any prior discussion?
Ohene Djan wouldn’t because he reportedly had the backing of the most powerful man in the country.
The recruitment of players to form Republikans showed that a club like Asante Kotoko -were to lose star players like Baba Yara and Dogo Moro. Hearts were losing stalwarts like Addo Odametey and Ofei Dodoo. Great Olympics were parting with number one national goalie Dodoo Ankrah and international full back Owens Oblitey; So were Sekondi Eleven Wise giving out famous goal getter Edward Acquah and Cromwell. Kumasi Cornerstone were also losing reputable midfielder Joe Aikins and Kojo Appiah. Cape Coast Vipers gave away Thomson Nunoo. Edward Boateng from Standfast; Osei Kwasi (Great Ashanti) and Franklin Crentsil (Sekondi Independence) were also on the recruitment list.
Two former Academicals players Abel Adusei (Achimota) and Otto Odametey (Odorgonno)
were also included. Meanwhile, fire was literally burning in Kumasi following the announced dismissal of Kotoko from the league.
The political bigwigs around including the famous Krobo Edusei had to intervene. Ohene Djan eventually decided to pardon Kotoko but for challenging his decision in the first place, the Porcupine Warriors would be readmitted but play all their first round home matches at Nkawkaw in the Eastern Region. Can you imagine? And this did happen. Ohene Djan had quickly formed a team called Kumasi United to replace Kotoko in the Garden City.
Kotoko actually played their first round matches at Nkawkaw CYO Park as ordered by the almighty Ohene Djan and returned to their natural habitat in the second round.
Despite all the hullabaloo in town, Republikans the model club, was formed. My suspicion is that perhaps in his quiet moments, Ohene Djan realised it wasn’t fair competition matching the newly formed star-studded national team in disguise against the other clubs in a league competition. Ohene Djan was a smart guy. Republikans used Agona Swedru as their home grounds and played the league on non-scoring basis.
But wait a minute. A club could beat Republikans for the valuable points at stake. The catch here was that Republikans could choose and pick which club should be favoured.
And this happened in a crucial match against Hearts that the Phobians needed the points to outpace Kotoko to win the league. Don’t forget that Kotoko and Hearts are age old rivals.
Your guess is as good as mine. Hearts beat Republikans to win the cup and ipso facto the league. Some sportswriters cunningly described the
match as the first officially sanctioned fixed league match in our history.
That’s Ohene Djan for you. Astute sports administrator but you antagonise him at your own risk as Sekondi Hasaacas somewhere along the line experienced and faced instant dismissal from the league.
Hasaacas had played a league match against Republikans after which their star player, Liberian born Modibo Toe, had suspiciously performed abysmally and was suspended by the club.
Ohene Djan from nowhere annulled the suspension and transferred Modibo Toe to Republikans “in the national interest”.
Obviously you would expect hell to break loose in the Western Regional capital. Sekondi Hasaacas protested vehemently and threatened to quit
the league if Modibo was forcibly taken away.
The powerful Ohene Djan called the bluff of Hasaacas and actually sacked the “Giants of the West” from the 1962-63 league.
To add confusion to disbelief, Ohene Djan replaced Hasaacas with Sekondi Independence, a second division team. The new club officially replaced Hasaacas at their position on the league table inheriting their points build up and all other details except the name Independence.
I think this should have gone into the Guinness Book of Records.
Incidentally Independence Club belonged to Mr Ambrose Yankey who was special assistant to President Kwame Nkrumah at the Flagstaff House.
Now you may be getting to appreciate the source of Ohene Djan’s authoritative power.
I am taking you on this memory lane because it seems our football people are gradually but unnoticeably creating a modern day Ohene Djan in GFA Boss Kurt Okraku.
Unfortunately, not for his administrative competences because the style is not the man and Okraku cannot in anyway be in the class of Ohene Djan. Kurt Okraku has been let loose by the system to wield power, brandish the name of FIFA and take controversial and unpopular decisions affecting Ghana football.
So despite the absence of any technical report
on the huge Afcon 23 fiasco, a national coach has been fired, compensation unknown, and he is replaced by the same technician who led us astray in the last World Cup, proudly returned to his revered safe job in Germany but now magically somersaults to come and lead us to another adventurous escapade.
Kurt Okraku has this time boldly given the resurrected Otto Addo written permission to toy with our Black Stars again for 34 months possibly renewable for another 24 months.
The question millions of worried Ghanaian football fans are asking is where does Kurt Okraku get all this power from to toy with the hearts of football crazy Ghanaians.
Let me know if you have the answer.
By the way cheers and keep loving sports.
