The National Division One League (DOL) will roll out this weekend with matches across several centres nationwide.

Starting almost a month after the Ghana Premier League (GPL), it is expected to create a festival atmosphere which fans in every corner of the country would be part of.

The demotion of Accra Great Olympics among two others to the division last season is expected to heighten coverage and attention for the competition.

Apart from the Wonder Club, there are a number of former Premier League clubs that are campaigning for returns to the elite league.

The likes of Okwahu United, New Edubiase, Real Tamale United, Bofoakwa Tano and many others readily comes to mind.

Though they may be in different regions or zones, they would still make a number of high profile matches that would attract fans to their respective venues.

Despite the excitement it generates, the DOL has been branded as the ‘wilderness’ of Ghana football due to some negative factors associated with it.

Reports of vandalism, attacks on visiting teams, bad officiating leading to chaotic scenes, bad pitches and others have been usually associated.

With such issues, the DOL must be lucky to have courted Access Bank as headline sponsors for the competition.

This is because very few corporate institutions would want to be associated to product that attract such negative reports.

With a new season set to commence, the DOL Board and other stakeholders must be seen to be taking decisions to tackle some of these issues.

The Football Association seem to be doing well in this regard with the organisation of workshops for Venue Media Officers (VMOs), Match Commissioners (MCs) and others that play key roles in ensuring an incident-free season.

These workshops would refresh their memories on amendments to the Laws of the game, Integrity, the Competition Management System (CMS), Report Writing, the Role of the modern Match Commissioner and how to conduct successful technical meetings.

In all of these, officiating is very key. A poor performance from a referee can throw any preparation out of gear so the FA’s focus must be on the referees and their assistants.

They are usually the victims of the mayhem caused by their own actions on the field.

The FA must ensure that their needs are met on time for them to operate very independent while also dealing drastically with people that falls foul of the law.

In that way, there can be sanity in DOL.

By Andrew Nortey