Hooliganism - a nurtured germ in soccer?

(A GNA Feature by Veronica Commey, GNA Sports Desk)

Accra, Jan 5, GNA - Soccer hooliganism is gradually lifting its ugly head, something that in time past warded off potential sponsors for Ghana's soccer League. Some of us have looked with irony in our seemingly helpless quest to uproot the canker forever; a situation that has compelled me to wonder whether the Okudjato Commission's decision to be silent on finding culprits or scapegoats in the wake of the May 9 recommendations was a shrewd decision.

The recent behaviour of supporters of Kumasi Asante Kotoko protesting a disallowed goal in their Premier League game against Sporting Mirren at the Ohene Djan Stadium last Sunday vividly re-enacted the events of May 9, when the irate fans broke down one of the bullet proof inner gates, invaded the pitch and attacked everything in sight except their players and even went to the extent of heckling the security detail at the arena with zeal.

Granted that the match officials might have been at their lowest ebb but was the attack necessary? I have read the Okudjato Commission's Report and my conviction is that page 38's attempt to "justify" the supporters' unpleasant behaviour regarding the May 9 is amusing and a recipe for disasters. You may argue that the security personnel over reacted in their quest to halt the hooligans during the May 9 calamity but to claim that "indeed some of the missile throwers were just showing their disgust and would have moved off after venting their emotions by throwing the missiles" as explained in section 25.24 on page 39 is regrettable.

Whoever said since the missiles were not directed at any particular group or person(s) and that the fans did not threaten each other in the stands or anywhere else in the arena, hence the need to have allowed them to vent their supposed anger, might perhaps be one of the reasons why in this age, supporters allow their emotions to clad their judgment when it matters most to save lives and property. Had the supporters who took the law into their hands to set the tone for the May 9 disaster been made to face the full rigorous of the law, those who turned the national arena into the rioting field in an apparent protest of bias officiating last Sunday would have had every reason to fear the repercussions.

I think our attempt to uproot hooliganism has been elusive mainly because we have relegated the main architects and culprits to the background and turn to look for scapegoats. But expect the Club to suffer for the destruction of national property only for the reckless culprits to escape punishment. For this reason, the clubs will do themselves and the game loads of good by embarking on educational drives for their supporters to accept that in football one cannot always win, while offenders get punished for misbehaving. It is easy to wonder why the football authorities as well as the security agencies still grapple with this phenomenon since some of them are ineffective or have aligned themselves with some of the clubs and so cannot take any punitive measures against known culprits.

The time has come for the football authorities to send out strong signals to all that soccer is governed by universal laws which cannot be flouted with impunity and that nobody would be made to go scot-free. Unless the bull is taken by the horns and approached with resolute issues like the England Football Association's, (EFA) which mandates security personnel to arrest supporters irrespective of their club affiliation for prosecution and go further to alert protocol to deny such hooligans access to the stadia; our sweat will be in vain. It is important that the football authorities revisit the Commission's recommendations to empower and equip the security agencies deployed to the stadia to work efficiently.

The Police may have finally intervened, but they appeared powerless as some fans formed a protective shield around the "ringleaders" thwarting their efforts at arresting the offenders. Watching the Policemen at the Stadium struggling but in vain to topple the rioting supporters with their bear hands and occasionally falling victims of the angry fans gave credence to the fact that until they are well equipped with the shield, riot gear and the megaphones, one would have to forget the war on hooliganism. Again, there is the need to task the security men who throng the arena to concentrate on mingling with the supporters to ensure sanity and focusing on their duties and to remain neutral instead of watching games must be among the prime objectives of halting hooliganism. And watching some Kotoko players join to attack the match officials, it became evident that targeting only supporters in our quest to uproot hooliganism would have little meaning if characters like players remain the reason why soccer lovers throng the arena week in and out.

Such players do not deserve to be involved in the passion of the nation, which can unite more than divide us all and it is against this backdrop that I ask the appropriate sanctions to be applied to who ever is found culpable to send the right signals that the FA is up to task of ensuring peaceful and violent-free soccer leagues in the country.