Kotoko coach Maxwell Konadu has been left to bear the brunt of the drama that blighted the club’s GPL week 11 fixture against Aduana Stars after the club’s Executive CEO distanced himself from the ‘disgraceful’ incident.
Ghana’s social media space has been awash with several posts condemning and ridiculing Kotoko for being ‘primitive’ and ‘unprofessional’.
Some of the commentators have also called for severe punishment for Kotoko and Aduana for bringing the name of Ghana football into disrepute.
In a post a match interview, Maxwell Konadu failed to explain the reason behind his decision to start with ten players instead of the eleven indicated on the team’s sheet’.
Konadu told StarTimes’ Eli Kondoh that “I cannot explain why we started with 10 players against Aduana Stars.”
But in an interesting turn of events, the Executive CEO of Kumasi Asante Kotoko, Kwame Kyei has disclosed his disapproval of the whole episode.
Kwame Kyei told Asempa FM that he does not believe in superstition and played no role in the drama that unfolded in Dormaa on Wednesday.
‘Juju’ plays no part in deciding football matches. Juju does not play football, I feel if you pray, whatever is left is up to you (team/players) to deliver. If you don’t work hard, nothing will come to fruition. So let’s rid the game of juju matters so our football can improve. You won’t see things like these in Europe, it’s only here in Africa, I disagree juju plays football. If juju plays football, then India would have won the World cup”.
Meanwhile a retired Ghanaian referee William Agbovi has ruled the possibility of Kotoko and Aduana getting punishment from the GFA.
According to him the two club’s violated no law with their decision to start a game with ten players instead of eleven.
“FIFA law 3 talks about the number of players allowed to start a game. The law allows that you can even start a game with seven players but must include someone identified as a goalkeeper. So none of them has flouted the regulations of the FA. That’s why the referee did not say anything because you can choose to start with ten or nine players but you don’t have exceed the maximum of eleven”.