Are our league centres safe?

29th July 2007

Correspondent: Jerome Otchere

This one question every football loving Ghanaian especially those who follow the local league passionately have to answer and in talking about league centres, I am referring to Premier League venues because I can only talk about what I have witnessed or experienced at the various Premier League centres.

I have not been to any Division One League centre in the country hence my near ignorance of what goes on there. My lack of knowledge of what pertains at the Division One League centres notwithstanding, it can be argued that those centres are neither safe nor secured. There have been frequent reports of crowd misbehaviour at a number of the Division One League centres and those reports sounded convincing.

Now back to the first question I posed: Are our Premier League centres safe? My answer is no. my reason will be seen by the time this article ends. Every season when the curtains of the Premier League are lowered we sit back to review events that took place. Critical analyses are made of how the clubs and for instance referees performed but not much is about safety or security at our league centres. 

Though we do not seem to learn anything from the thousands or is it millions of reviews that are conducted over and over, the significance of such retrospection cannot be overemphasised. We must continue reviewing the football season when it ends regardless of whether or not we draw lessons from the experiences.

I was delighted to learn at the launching of the Onetouch Premier League Awards a few weeks ago that a league centre would to be named as the ‘Best Behaved Centre’ when the Awards are held. My delight stemmed from the fact such an award was likely to compel us to spend more time discussing security situations at the various league centres.

The Awards Night passed away successfully last Saturday evening at the State Banquet Hall in Accra and truly, a league centre – the Carl Reindorf Park at Dansoman was adjudged as the ‘Best Behaved Centre’. It did not come as a surprise because the Carl Reindorf Park was relatively safer than the other eleven league centres. Apart from the fact that a part of the inner perimeter was destroyed following Kotoko’s second goal in the match against Liberty Professional the Carl Reindorf Park was peaceful.    

Among the league centres used by the sixteen clubs during the Onetouch Premier League were Dansoman, Tema, Ho, Kpando, Swedru, Cape Coast, Sekondi, Konongo, Obuasi, Sunyani, Berekum and Tamale. We already know where each club used as its home. With the exception of Kotoko, Hearts, Tema Youth and Real Sportive, no club changed its home venue in the course of the season.

And having been to the aforementioned league centres within the last two years, my observation is that almost all the league centres are non-comfort zones. They are no safe havens! That is worrying because those places are supposed to be secured. We go to the stadium or the league centres to entertain ourselves but sadly, nearly all the league centres have become intimidatory and bullying grounds.

Some of the league centres can best described as ‘camps terrorism’ – places where unreasonable acts of violence and brutality were perpetuated with impunity. The pain however is that we do not seem to care much about all which goes on at the these centres. Apart from the Carl Reindorf Park and the Ho Sports Stadium none of the remaining league centres were without trouble.

At Kpando there were acts of hooliganism when Heart of Lions hosted Olympics. The story was not different when Kotoko stormed the same venue on Wednesday, February 28. Not only was Coach Bashir Hayford almost prevented from doing his work. Other official like the referee and his assistants out of fear performed poorly.

Supporters of Heart of Lions were extremely provocative. Besides the referee’s poor performance did not help matters. Not every Kotoko fan at the Park could control his emotions. One Kotoko supporter jumped into the inner perimeter to vent his spleen on the referee for disallowing an obvious penalty. It was serious yet interesting to see the fourth referee fleeing as this Kotoko fan stormed the pitch.

The police intervened and calm was restored. This incident at Kpando surely cannot pass as healthy. At Swedru where Gamba All Blacks hosted Kotoko on April 1st there was trouble at the main gate. It was difficult to ascertain the source of the problem. Some officials of All Blacks were simply out to intimidate Kotoko. The Waterloo Park at Konongo recorded its share of violence when some unruly supporters hurled objects at Kotoko players, Coach Afranie and the match officials Kotoko lost 1-0 to the Lions.

The intimidation at the Berekum Golden City Park has always been of unimaginable proportions. During the past season, the hooligans at Berekum reenacted their dreadful retrogressive acts when Hearts and Kotoko went there. It is on record that Kotoko Express Photographer David Kyei continues to be prevented from doing his work at that venue and in the past season he had no option than to work from the stands.

The same David Kyei including other journalists went through hell at the gates of the Len Clay Sports Stadium although they were duly accredited by the PLB to cover the Ashgold-Kotoko second round encounter. The intimidation at the gates and inside the Len Clay Sports Stadium was astounding. David Kyei was eventually accused of having ‘juju’ in his camera which he will drop into Ashgold’s goal post if allowed to go into the inner perimeter to take his photographs.

The windscreen of Hearts’ bus was vandalised at the same Len Clay Sports Stadium after Ashgold was beaten 1-0 by the Phobians. Just recently the FA Disciplinary Committee announced the punishment for Miners following their violent behaviour. Many stories abound when it comes to the Gyandu Park. It is for instance true that when Hasaacas hosted Kotoko in the PLB Special Knockout match in April last year substitute players of Kotoko in their jerseys were forced to purchase tickets before entering the stadium.

A certain Araba Tagoe with fine traits of a complete hooligan ensured that even accredited journalists paid before entering the stadium. This year was no exception. Tamale did not come into the picture of insecurity at our league centres that well in the past season. However the Tamale Kaladan Park has the notoriety for violence.

Sunyani was no doubt a trouble spot and one centre which for me should be given utmost attention is Cape Coast. It is not as if the Robert Mensah Sports Stadium is totally unsafe. That is not the point. The point is about the behaviour of police officers detailed to maintain peace and order there. Some the officers throughout last season appeared incapable of controlling misbehaving spectators.

Recently when Kotoko thrashed Hearts 3-1 in Cape Coast, one officer attached to be the Body Guard of the Central Regional Minister slapped a Kotoko supporter who was angrily arguing with a Hearts fan. Many people including the Central Regional Minister and Chairman Sylvester Asare-Owusu were at a complete loss why the Police officer instead calming tempers chose to attack one of the arguing fans.

This and many other incidents make me feel that a lot ought to be done about security at the Robert Mensah Sports Stadium and other league centres. Crowd misbehaviour at the stadium is not peculiar to Ghana. It is everywhere but the fact that it is commonplace does not make it acceptable. There must be concerted efforts to stem violence at our league centres. Continuous education is a must.

Football fans must know that it pays to be disciplined and responsible at the stadium. Club officials have a duty to ensure that their league centres are safe and secured. The nature of our league centres make matters worse but more often than not stories about ‘juju’ or superstition and what an away or home team may have done causes insecurity at the stadium.

Supporters of the club which is likely to lose as a result the ‘juju’ spell would to do everything to neutralise the effects of the spell and that often leads to violence because the opposing fans would resist anything which will also lead to their club being defeated.

Imagine Heart of Lions dressing-up in the stands last Sunday and entering the field of play with three coconuts because of their suspicion that Kotoko had ‘spoiled’ the dressing rooms and even the pitch. The examples of insecurity are not isolated cases and this is the time for the FA deal to with anything that makes the league centres unsafe.

The rules must be applied well. The Police should also be professional in handling misbehaving supporters. With the huge attendance at certain matches and the number police officers who often detailed main peace and order it will always be difficult for the police to be control hooliganism at the league centres. 

However when the right things are done by club officials; when spectators resolved to be disciplined and when the FA becomes tough on issues relating to superstition and hooliganism we will be safer at the league centres.