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Sports News of Wednesday, 11 January 2023

Source: ghanaguardian.com

Attendance at Ghana Premier League matches not good enough - GFA Spokesperson

Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association, Henry Asante Twum Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association, Henry Asante Twum

The Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association(GFA), Henry Asante Twum has admitted that attendance at various league centers is nothing to write home about.

In recent times, spectatoring at various matches has generated a lot of debate with most people suggesting all manner of reasons.

Some have blamed the promotion of the various foreign leagues with our Sports journalist culpable for spending precious airtime talking about the foreign league instead of the local game and training the taste buds of their listeners.

Others have blamed the innovative e-ticketing as those living in the stone age are of the opinion that spectators must still queue to buy tickets like it was done years ago.

There are also other schools of thought which claim that there are no players who add some stardust to the league as players keep leaving every season after a few good performances.

“Personally I watch some of the matches physically not as in watching on Tv. There are weekends I tell the General Secretary I want to go and watch a game then they allow me to go. Because sometimes you need to observe things yourself. There are some venues attendance are very good," Henry Asante Twum said on Asempa FM.

"I remember match day one we went to Dormaa, Aduana v Hearts of Oak massive recently Aduana v Kotoko massive but those game naturally they promote itself. Especially if Kotoko is coming to your home or Hearts is coming to your home. In the past when I was with Dreams and we are about to play Kotoko we used the money gotten to fund the next two away matches. You will use money gotten from Hearts match to fund your next two away matches,"

"The same when I was with Tema Youth that’s how we did our projections. To be very honest it is not good enough Kumasi, Accra, recently Cape Coast it is not good enough but if Accra Lions is playing at the Accra Sports Stadium and Accra Lions knows that when playing against Bechem they can't use that for their mathematics Legon Cities knows they can't use that for their mathematics but if they are playing Kotoko they expect a respectable crowd this is what we will get," he added.

"But in recent times it is not going well. When I think about it constant engagement with the owners of the club you know we have owners in two folds the owners club those who invest in the club that is CEO, patron, board member etc. But the real owners of the club are the fans on the street if there is no constant reminder and you don’t speak to their conscience forget it,”

In the last few weeks traditional clubs like Hearts and Kotoko have struggled to fill their stadiums as there is an apparent attendance fatigue from football fans.