Unnecessary Postponements.
Kofi Agyepong | Posted: Thursday, September 22, 2005
With eight matches left for the national soccer league to end, I think it is only prudent and proper to let the Ghana Football Association and the Professional league Board know how they are viewed from the lenses of the Ghanaian soccer fan.
Every year for over a decade now, there appears to have been no league season that has satisfied everybody or had been smooth and plain sailing.
There are always too many interruptions and these unnecessary breaks start at the beginning of every season- at the drop of a hat. Reasons for stopping the league or for the postponement range from the really necessary to the truly fatuous.
For the six time this year, the G.T premiere league has been postponed. No one will ever think of complaining when the league takes a breath for the national teams to begin preparations for international assignments like world Cup, Africa Cup of Nations or the Olympic Games or to honour matches in connection with these international.
But these are at specific times and the organizers provide the date well in advance to enable the soccer authorities in the country to be able to slot them into the league system. For this reason, these expected breaks present little or no problems for soccer fans and players.
The real and only problem is the unplanned and unexpected breaks which the Professional League Board (PLB) is in the habit of thrusting into our league system so frequently. Apart from their nuisance value in breaking the league programmes up, it is never clear and the PLB or GFA has never been able to demonstrate why they should occur.
The years have shown that these adhoc programmes are of doubtful value, indeed it can even be demonstrated that many are inimical to the interests of the nation. Our sports authorities seem not to learn or open their ears for advice.
Our National teams can only do well when we have a well planned league devoid of all those unnecessary break ups in the league.
It's an undisputable fact that the success of our national teams theses days stems from how competitive our league has been. The competitiveness of the league helps discover players and prepare them to do battle.
Anyone who proposed these postponements at a time when the league has rose to its peak and raised passions can be compared to a terrorist. Maybe the PLB and the GFA have no sympathy for the clubs whose finances are in disarray.
We must all have the interest of Ghana soccer and the Clubs at heart. One thing is sure; nothing in Ghana can unite us more than our games. I remember when the Black Stars played against Uganda, I could see politicians of different political parties in the stadium chatting and having fun together. This truly and clearly shows how important football is. We have always been divided by politics but football always brings us together.
It is dreadful and suicidal to play with the passion of the nation. The PLB and the GFA must put their house in order to prevent any unnecessary re-occurrence of these postponements.
We have to keep the CAF deadline to declare Clubs to represent Ghana in Africa in mind in any adjustment that is going to be done to the league schedule.
It is also important to note that the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt will start in January next year and therefore the Black Stars will start preparing for the tournament as soon as the European leagues go on the winter break. A word to the wise is enough, and those who have ears should listen
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