By: Jerry Afriyie-Paemka

Date: 15-07-11

Just as one thought the issues of this year’s President’s Cup match between Asante Kotoko and Berekum Chelsea at the Ohene Djan Stadium on Republic Day was finally being laid to rest, the Ghana League Clubs Association (GHALCA) decided to muddy the waters by announcing a GH˘10,000 fine and imposing a year ban on Kotoko. This sounds so much like a big joke.

Not to dwell so much on the unsavory occurrences but in my candid opinion Kotoko should have taken part in the award presentation ceremony no matter the anger and frustrations caused by poor officiating.

Under no circumstance should supporters encourage players to leave the field when there was still unfinished business, especially with the Vice-President of the land in attendance.

The incident is regrettable and it is very much in order that Kotoko has apologized to the Vice-President, The President of the GFA as well as the football fraternity.

The protest against fair officiating was certainly carried too far and in such situations there is the need for some cool heads to keep tempers in control; however I think on that fateful day we all lost it and has rightly apologized.

The incident has also given various commentators the ammunition to fire some salvos at the Porcupine club that is fair enough.

However GHALCA have shocked many with their outrageous decision to fine and ban Kotoko. I have no qualms if the organizers have decided to withhold Kotoko’s purse and keep the loser’s medals but where from the ban and the GH˘10,000 fine?

What law are they interpreting or basis for their decision? What is the locus of the current interim GHALCA executives to dare attempt to place a ban on Kotoko?

Is it GHALCA that runs football in Ghana? And why has the GFA not called GHALCA to order?

I have never seen this body called GHALCA which is an association of football clubs vigorously pursue anything in the interest of football clubs in Ghana or come to the aid of members of the association in times of difficulty.

Although the decision to form an association of clubs was a laudable one by those who conceived the idea, with time it appears the association is lacking direction and is obviously experiencing leadership crisis which is why they could take such an action which in reality is an empty bluff.

We wait to see the day that GHALCA will be at the forefront fighting for fair officiating in the various leagues as well as the reduction if not the total abolishment of some of the deductions that are made from gate proceeds during league matches.

It is difficult to foresee how Kotoko are going to dole out GH˘10,000 to GHALCA as payment of the fine. 

As for the Top Four competition, some of us have never been in favour of the timing and manner the competition is organized.  This is because top four clubs engaging in home and away duels just before the start of the league is tantamount to handing an advantage to the rest of the clubs who will start the season fresher than the top clubs.  

My suggestion is that at worse it should be a knockout competition or the mini tournament should be played in the off-season and not pre-season. 

Anyway GHALCA can take their Top Four and I don’t expect Kotoko to ever return to that competition because records indicate that the Top Four has never been a financial blessing to the Porcupines but rather it is the association that has benefited immensely from sponsorship cash and gate takings in previous competitions to the detriment of participating clubs.

If one should carefully read in between the lines, it is obvious that the association intends to extract GH˘10,000 from Kotoko which would have been the minimum amount the organizers would have made at the gates had the Porcupines participated in the competition. However as the saying goes, “you cannot eat your cake and have it.”

Yes Kotoko refused to take their loser’s medals after the President’s Cup match just as the Black Stars refused to take their loser’s medal after the Stars were robbed by the referee eventually losing to Sudan in the 1970 Africa Cup of Nations in Khartoum.

The pain and anger of Coach Ben Koufie as well as players including goalie Robert Mensah, Ibrahim Sunday, Malik Jabir and others in 1970 was not different from what was felt by Coach Bogdan Korak, goalie Soulama Abdoulaye, Daniel Nii Adjei, Alex Asamoah and Co in 2011 but the Black Stars still returned home to a heroic welcome. 

Nobody is saying what the Black Stars or Kotoko did is good but sometimes extreme provocation can lead to some of these things and there are several instances that teams have refused to take their medals after a hotly disputed result.

One of such instance was in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

“ In Munich the American basketball team refused to accept their silver medals after the game clock was reset incorrectly. With the score at 50-59 for the Americans, officials called a foul on team Russia, but the clock failed to stop in time, and was a second over. After the final buzzer, the Americans celebrated their victory, but both teams were told they had to replay the final seconds of the game because of the clock malfunction. Instead of restoring the clock to the correct one second, the officials added two extra seconds, giving Russia enough time to score a layup and win 51-50.” (Courtesy history of Olympic Scandals).

Surely the Munich Olympics in 1972 will be remembered for several reasons, some positive some negative, chief among them was when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorist group Black September and eleven of the Olympians were murdered.