Sports
A scandalous season takes a bow
What a season!
After a litany of controversies and contentions here and there, the 2021/22 Ghana Premier League (GPL) ‘curtained down’ last weekend with Kumas-based Asante Kotoko being crowned champions.
It was the club’s record-extending 25th championship diadem, gloriously clinched with three games to spare.
Kotoko’s arch rivals Hearts of Oak – who were the defending champions finished a distant sixth – and four adrift the new kings, as regards GPL coronets.
The biggest talking point on the weekend was Hearts’ 1-4 home loss to RTU who needed the result badly to survive. Inexplicably, it was the Phobians’ fourth straight defeat, an upshot that raises lots of probing question marks. Certainly, as defending champions, it was an embarrassing manner to surrender the title.
For the first time in eight years or so, the league’s most thrilling side – and the only representatives from the Volta Region, West Africa Football Academy (WAFA), also bade adieu to the top flight as they suffered the drop together with Eleven Wonders and Elmina Sharks.
It was also a season that witnessed one of the most shameful, despicable and probably the most horrifying football scandal that occurred between AshantiGold SC and Inter Allies whose fixed game has landed them in demotion to the lower tier. The two disgraced teams have appealed the decision, though.
Come to think of it, the goal-king came from the beleaguered AshantiGold whose striker Yaw Annor, banged home 22 goals to upstage Kotoko’s Cameroon import Mbella (21). To allow a club who were ‘sin-binned’ for bringing the game into disrepute to finish the season, in itself was unthinkable.
Anyway, we are told as GPL champions, Kotoko will receive $30,000. This amount, if it is anything to go by, is pure insult.
In other jurisdictions, even in the Sahel and Maghreb as well South Africa, players pocket close to $10,000 each for winning their respective leagues.
When it comes to competitions in Africa, the juicier it becomes, for players from such clubs.
For instance, each WAC of Morocco player received $30,000 for winning the Champion League trophy.
Truth is that our league would have become better if we had a headline sponsor; and this aberration is what managers of our domestic football should be working vigorously on ahead of next season.
If leagues in war-ravaged countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and Niger among others, are able to attract major sponsors for their leagues, then it tells you there is something we may not have been doing right!
Is it that the Publicity and Marketing Department of the Ghana FA are dozing off on their job? Difficult to say now; but whatever be the case, the FA and their people must be up and doing.
Premier League Clubs spend averagely GH¢10,000 or more to prepare for games (especially when hitting the road). Multiply this amount by let us say 17 – representing away ties, and that is a massive outlay of cash even for clubs that seem to have some corporate financial backing.
Hope you are not losing sight of the winning bonuses in the mix?
It is much the reason the clubs are compelled to sell off some of their top players midstream in order to survive, ultimately depriving the league of the requisite excitement and thrill.
By extension, our league is increasingly surrendering what is left of it to the lures of foreign football simply because we keep losing our marquee players day-in-day-out!
As we have hammered number without end, nobody goes to the stadium to watch no one! At least, one stimulating player got to be the charm to pull the fans.
Perhaps, it is against this saturnine backdrop that former President of the GFA and now chairman of the Premier League Management Committee, LepowuraAlhaji MND Jawula, has sworn to do all in their power to get the premiership a mega sponsor before the new season rolls off.
Fetching a headline sponsor for our league is a sine qua non that has been taken for granted for a long time. It must not be the case!
However, we must also not lose sight of the fact that without organising a clean, well-managed league of integrity, no sponsor would be willing to come aboard.
Of course, no sponsor would want to be associated with a scandalized league, and our FA must work unremittingly to flush out that mortifying tag.
PlainTalk With John Vigah
A little over six weeks ago, everything pointed to a Medeama SC coronation as 2025/26 Ghana Premier League (GPL) champions at the end of the season.
That sounds premature, considering the fact that there were close to about 15 matches before the curtain was drawn on the competition.
However, believers of that assumption were right with that call due to Medeama’s form and doughty-character.
Medeama has been fearless this season. They have been ruthless, sharp, composed and a very formidable opposition, dealing with what their opponents throw at them.
In fact, establishing a 17-game unbeaten run speaks volumes of the quality Medeama has shown this season.
Two people have been key in this transformational story – Coach Ibrahim Tanko and playmaker, Salim Adams.
As of Week 21, Medeama SC opened a yawning seven-point gap with 43 points, leading Aduana FC, Hearts of Oak and Gold Stars, all with 36 points without any indication of slowing down.
But the story has completely changed just four matches after, with Medeama currently occupying the top spot with a slim one point.
Worse of all is the failure to record a win in their last five games in the competition, surviving at the top with unfavourable results of their closest competitors.
That winless run has seen Medeama drawn in three games against Samartex FC, Aduana FC and Swedru All Blacks, and lost to Nations FC and Hohoe United.
The nature of the defeat to Hohoe United generated controversy among those who won’t accept that a penalty miss and an erratic clearance by goalkeeper Felix Kyei that gifted the Voltarians the winning goal were genuine errors.
Their recent falters should have been pleasant opportunities for second-placed Gold Stars, and Hearts of Oak to capture reins at the top, but strangely, they suffered challenges of their own; leaving Medeama hanging at the top.
These dynamics are beginning to paint a positive picture for the competition as clubs at the top fight for more points to take pole positions, wrest with strugglers who are also battling hard for survival.
Outside of the top three, with chances of assuming the top spot if the Medeama form does not see any improvement, are Karela United and Asante Kotoko.
Despite their struggles, they have an outside chance of joining the battle at the top with nine matches to go.
At this stage of the competition, the pressure will be on Coach Ibrahim Tanko and his Medeama charges. Having ‘bottled’ a seven-point gap to a single point, it is surely theirs to lose.
Tanko, in previous interviews, has parried questions over the pressure on him and the team, but their current predicament leaves much to be desired.
The next two months would witness intense battle at both ends of the table with as many as five clubs having reason to contest for the ultimate, with about the same number set for the late drama to escape the last two slots to join Eleven Wonders, who are the surest bet for demotion.
By Andrew Nortey
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A step closer to glory awaits six Ghana Premier League (GPL) club sides and two Division One clubs as they battle for spots at the semi-finals stage of the 2025-26 MTN FA Cup this weekend at the Cape Coast Stadium and the Nana Fosu Gyeabour Park in Bechem.
Dreams FC, the 2022-2023 champions, will clash with Heart of Lions in the quarter-finals at the Cape Coast Stadium tomorrow at pm.
Heart of Lions are going through a difficult spell in the league, having lost ground on their title aspirations that started brightly.
Dreams FC thrashed Lions 3-0 in the reverse fixture of the GPL game in January after losing 1-0 in the first round tie, and tomorrow’s game comes in to settle the scores between the two sides this season.
Although struggling, Lions lie two places above Dreams’ 12th position on the league log and will look to take that inspiration into the game.
The day’s other game will see two-time champions Medeama SC battle Access Bank Division One League (DOL) Zone Three side Attram De Visser at the same venue at 7pm.
The GPL leaders Medeama SC are in the chase for a double this season and will chase a win to appease their fans.
After defeating Asante Kotoko 4-2 on penalties in the Round of 16, Aduana FC will seek to account for Access Bank DOL Zone One B campaigners, Techiman Liberty Youth, today.
Aduana FC are in the hunt for a double this season as they are currently third on the GPL table, trailing leaders Medeama SC with five points.
Having been decisive in matches against Nsuatre FC, Victory Club Warriors and Real Tamale United to get this far, the best in the annals of the club’s history, coach Ezekiel Nii Yeboah of Liberty Youth would be out to cause an upset.
At the Nana Fosu Gyeabour Park in Bechem tomorrow, another interesting pairing is set to play out as the all-Premier League affair between Nations FC and Berekum Chelsea takes centre stage.
By Raymond Ackumey
