Cry Our Beloved Local Football League!

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The legal tussle between the Ghana Football Association and Nania FC should be a great source of concern to any football-loving individual or group. For now, it appears as if the 2007/2008 league season will never start because of Nania FC’s decision to appeal against the one-year ban it was handed by the Disciplinary Committee of the GFA, sometime in April this year—therefore, denying it entry into the elite division of Ghana football. The league is already two weeks behind schedule.

Sometime this year, some division one football teams, in an attempt to qualify for the premiership, recorded cricket scores—in their final games—raising eye-brows among Ghanaians and many other followers of the league, all over the world. Nania FC—a team owned and managed by Abedi Pele—beat Okwawu United by 31-0 while Great Mariners also recorded a 29-0 victory over Tudu Mighty Jets. The brouhaha that characterized these games necessitated the setting up of a committee by the GFA, whose decision led to the banning of these four clubs, for engaging in matches of convenience. By its legal procedure, the four clubs were given a 72-hour period to appeal against the decision, which Nania took advantage of and appealed against the decision, citing the GFA’s lack of evidence in arriving at the decision to ban the four clubs.

My concern, though, is not whether or not Nania FC and the other clubs played matches of convenience (because that has been overly discussed) but whether the GFA had the evidence to warrant the setting up of a committee to prosecute the case in the manner it did. Considering the circumstances that surrounded the cricket scorelines, no one has to say any further that the matches MAY have been fixed. For one thing, Great Mariners and Nania FC were tied on the same points (in their various groups) and needed not just a win but superior goals to book a place to the elite division of Ghana football. However, the number of goals, coupled with the hurried manner in which the goals were scored, created room for suspicion. Secondly, within the same game, (between Nania FC and Okwawu United) four of the players of Okwawu United were injured which automatically meant that Okwawu could not make any more substitution. Third, players of this same depleted (Okwawu) team were said to have hurriedly gone for the ball and sent it to the center of the field to restart the game anytime they conceded a goal. Fourth, before Nania FC scored a goal, players of Okwawu were said to have passed the ball backward (deliberately to player of Nania FC) to facilitate Nania’s goal-scoring process. Fifth, in a radio interview with JOYFM, Abedi Pele said, in an answer to a question that he left the stadium soon after his team had scored 5-0 but his brother, Solar Ayew, in another interview said that after the game, Abedi was carried shoulder high. However, these concerns aside, the scoreline comes out as the biggest source of argument. Scorelines of this nature hardly happen in competitive games, nowadays, no matter the circumstances. To be honest, I am surprised Abedi Pele is making this a protracted issue, but anyway, let’s see.

That said, though, the major challenge in cases like this is how to produce hard evidence to prosecute a case of the nature Nania FC and the GFA find themselves. Much of this evidence or—let me say—reasoning (that has so far been put forward against Nania FC) is heavily based on hear-say and some rumor mongering activity engaged in by some media personnel and interest groups. These are just pieces of information not well-documented, and therefore no court with a competent jurisdiction will make some judgment on the tantrums of a group of people. Without hard evidence, no judge will rule in favor of the GFA, unless of course, the case ends up in the court of a very sympathetic judge. Lawyers, judges, and courts do not deal with hear-say and rumors; they deal with evidence.

In deciding to ban the four clubs, the GFA Disciplinary Committee invoked Articles 34 1(i) and (7), 35 (5) (d) and 39, (4) (9) of the GFA statutes, on match fixing. My question, though, is from what did the GFA conclude that Nania FC and the four clubs played matches of convenience? It is not enough for the GFA and many others to argue that even a day old baby can tell that the matches were fixed. Wait a minute; this is a decision that borders on a team’s football future, which is why they allegedly did what they did.

We are told that the matches were not even recorded, which makes proving the allegations leveled against Nania FC and the other teams very difficult. It is surprising that matches of such importance went without a touch of the digital machine. No serious nation that wants to develop its football to an international level will build its game on this kind of trust, which foundation is that all teams will play matches fair and square. Nothing of that nature exists in the world. The improvement in the game of football has brought in its wake very sophisticated ways that teams and players use to play and win matches. Why do you think that the major leagues in the world have used the video technology with so much finesse and fruition? If the GFA wants to develop the local game which is inextricably linked with the national teams, then, they need to build the requisite infrastructure for the league and that includes—video recording of games (I mean the GFA's own recording mechanisms; not the ones done by the media).

Without video evidence and a more sophisticated way of proving an allegation against a team, teams will always get away with negative behavior that threaten the integrity and progress of the Ghanaian league. More often than not, we hear of bribery allegations and other cases of matches of convenience, involving teams in matches but just days after that the GFA and its Disciplinary Committee make nonsense of such reports, simply because they have no hard, traceable evidence to decide on those cases.

I have said time and again that the Ghana Football Association had—and still has—a strong case, by deciding to take on the four division one clubs but it did not have the evidence—at least it has not shown that yet—to support its claim. From the look of things, Nania FC has a very good chance of landing in the One Touch Premier League. The GFA's Disciplinary Committee’s decision was not consistent with any evidence-producing process that will implicate Nania FC, so Nania stands a good chance in court. For me, that is where the problem is. Anyone can just do anything wrong and go away with it. The burden of proof is not on Nania FC, so it will be interesting how it all plays out. Nania might escape, not because they are blameless but because the GFA goofed; that, in that case, will be a very bad precedent for Ghana football. Other teams will refer to this case in future.

However, should this case have ended up in court? I say No! It is very bad for the game, and the ripples of that decision have already been manifested—the league is not starting anytime soon. Let’s hope Nania FC does not take the matter to another level, if it loses the appeal. However, because we're dealing with an FA in which personal loyalties often supersede national interests, no one knows what to expect. The GFA should learn to clean its house without begging courts, FIFA, and other external bodies to come and straighten it up.

No one knows when the court case will end; I don’t think there is an end in sight, anyway. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency, the GFA President, Mr. Nyantakyi promised to go the distance with Nania FC. He said “despite the delay in the start of the league, the FA has no option than to go all out and ensure that justice is attained while expressing confidence that they will emerge victors when both parties meet at the Court of Appeal on August 21.” I don’t have a problem with the FA President’s statement but I don’t know what Abedi Pele and his legal team will do next should they lose the appeal but I know from experience, and through years of following the game that court cases in the game of football are almost endless, not to talk about their negative effects on the game of football. For now, the stage is set for a show down; of course, I hope you know that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. Ghana football will bleed!

I have two main concerns: the development of talents for our game and attracting future sponsorship. The local league should form the bedrock for the development of talents for the various national teams, and so, a good local league is a panacea to talent development and progress of the national teams. No nation can dream of very good national teams without an effective and a well-organized local league. You can’t eat your cake and have it! Furthermore, league sponsors, One Touch announced a 17 billion sponsorship for the league, a figure which is an improvement over what pertained in previous years. The legal battle could affect future sponsorships not only from local sponsors but from international sponsors.

With the 2008 African Cup of Nations just around the corner, and with Ghana’s determination to do very well in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, surely developments like this will not help that dream. We must sit up!

The text for this piece is set to American English.