Feature: Time for GFA to ‘Pepper Dem’

In 1987, the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, uttered one of the most iconic sayings of the 21st century: “Mr Gorbachev...Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
The backstory stems from West Germany and East Germany separated by a wall, known as the Berlin Wall. West Germany stood for capitalism, a thriving economy, while East Germany struggled with its communist economy. It was so awful that many sought to climb the wall to get to West Germany in search of greener pastures.

In recent times, there are certain walls in our football that the Ghana Football Association should tear down if we want the game to change. A classic example is hooliganism. The unfortunate events of the match day three of the Ghana Premier League between the home team, Asante Kotoko, and Berekum Chelsea resulted in a fan losing his eye in all the chaos.

What is hooliganism?
There is always a fuss on what actually hooliganism is. For the sake of clarity, hooliganism is predominately associated with rowdy, disruptive, violent behaviour usually occurring at sports centres.

The backstory
Ghana has had its fair share of hooliganism, especially in football. From time to time, fans take the law into their own hands and decide to tread untoward paths. We were reminded of that on match day three in Kumasi when through such unruly behaviour, a fan lost an eye. It is easy to point fingers at the police and all the stakeholders, but let’s be guided here; everyone has a role to play. The causes of hooliganism must be addressed dispassionately.

Causes
Poor officiating and mistrust of referees: Since the genesis of football in Ghana, there has been an increasingly growing mistrust of officiating in this side of town. The notion is that some are compromised and hence make key decisions that affect the other team. The May 9 disaster, which is recorded as one of the worst stadium disasters in the world, was sparked by a controversial officiating decision.

There have been times where bans have been slapped on prominent referees for blunders. There have been times where fans have alleged they caught referees in the ‘act’ of receiving bribes. The stories go on and on. The wounds deepened when the Number 12 expose opened a Pandora’s box about refereeing in Ghana. This has played a major role in fans being sceptical about officiating in the crucial games.

Poor remuneration of referees: This has been a contributory factor. There are stories of referees not being paid well and monies taking forever to get to the referees. This makes them vulnerable to clubs that will do anything to win games.

As the saying goes, a “hungry man is an angry man”. It takes a high form of discipline and skill to resist offers when one isn’t paid sufficiently well. It is easy to go on the tangent of morality and principles but we all know reality is different from idealistic principles or as we popularly put it, “field work is different from theory”.

It is quite humorous to expect the highest form of professionalism from referees when there is a system error in giving adequate and timely remuneration for their services rendered.

Clubs inciting their fans against the football association: The conspiracy theories abound when clubs lose tough games. It is rather unfortunate when high-ranking officials in a club decide to go down the gutter with unnecessary comments which will poison the minds of die-hard fans.

I think it is very crass. Moreover you would think a member of an association would rather deal with things privately rather than come and wash dirty linen in public.

This is a very petulant behaviour that causes a lot of problems in the long run. Isn’t it amazing that the gospel being preached is that of “they are against us” only when there is a defeat? Such comments are unhealthy and dangerous.

The media: It would be a travesty to leave the media out. Reportage must always be devoid of emotions and sentiments; however, this isn’t so. It has become a fashion of taking sides and fuelling the fire for ratings and other benefits.

It is sad when instead of calling club officials out and questioning some statements to find out the veracity, some journalists allow these club officials to rant freely without scrutinising their comments.

It is disheartening to see wild allegations being thrown on the airwaves with little or no follow-ups to prove them. People then take these things hook, line and sinker and then it causes problems in our football, especially on match days.

Solutions
I think it’s high time we turned over a new leaf with regard to tackling hooliganism in Ghana. It is about time ‘we pepper dem’. We all know pepper as a spice, but it can also be used in ways to bring radical change. For example, a pepper spray can ward off a predator or a ‘preparator’.

The concept of ‘pepper dem’ is to use drastic measures to get the needed results as chili can be hot and very unforgiving when applied in full throttle. There should be punitive measures for referees who go against the laws of the game. This will build trust in the system.

It will take a lot of steps to bring fans to wholeheartedly trust officiating, but it’s definitely not mission impossible. Good and timely payment of remuneration must be encouraged. If this becomes the norm, certain loopholes will be closed.

Of course there are some greedy people in every institution where no amount of money will suffice, but that can easily be dealt with through the first solution. Another way to deal with hooliganism will be to punish clubs severely for actions of their fans and officials.

The Machiavelli tactic can be employed here: “If an injury has to be done to a man, it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.”

The Disciplinary Committee must ensure that punishment meted out to clubs for hooliganism will deter others from allowing their fans to engage in such unruly behaviour. The media needs to play its role as a watchdog effectively.

There should be special training for policemen who handle security at stadia. Let’s bear in mind that the actions and inactions of policemen in such unrest can cause the loss of many lives or save lives.

Hooliganism is a serious cancer to Ghana’s football and it will take a lot of pepper dem activities to curb it.