Our Premier League And Protests

Another football season will be kicking off soon and one will be wondering whether the 2004 premier league will be ending without clubs winning points in the boardroom and offices.

This year marks the eleventh year since professional league was introduced into this dear country of ours but I wonder if we are really playing professional league.

Our premier league has been characterised with protest ever since we started professional league in this country and I doubt if our football controlling body have noticed this.

A team will triumph after 90 minutes of gruelling football and will end up losing those points for fielding an unqualified player.

An instance is what happened to Obuasi Goldfields last football season where they have to loss twelve points for fielding Cameroun import Valentine Atem for allegedly not regularising his stay and employment in Ghana.

What we need to ask ourselves is did the GFA see to it that the player had the correct document before registering him and also was the club aware that the player needs a work permit to play in Ghana?

At the closing stages of last football season there were several protests pending before the bodies of the GFA and most Ghanaians felt uncomfortable with that prevailing situation and that doesn’t order well for our Professional League.

Anyway these days it has become fashionable for clubs to win matches off the pitch than on the field thanks to lodging of protest. I believe this might be one of the reasons why we don’t see sponsors coming in to sponsor our Premier League. No sponsor will be happy sponsoring a league which is not properly organised and characterised with protests.

Gone are the days where clubs publish names of their registered players in the newspaper but this day’s player registration is rushed and most clubs do not have the luxury of time to publish the names of registered players for any other interested party to contest the eligibility of the player before the league kicks off.

If player registration is done in good time and names published it will save our dear professional league of the controversies that have engulfed it for the past ten years.

With the GFA Congress scheduled for March 15th, this must be the number one issue on their agenda and I believe if the proper stractures are put in place we will have a free protest league this season.If this dream is achieved we will have sponsors coming in to help support our "Protest Premier League"(PPL).

Both the GFA and the Clubs must ensure that this season matches are won on the field of play and not in the boardrooms and offices.

A word to a wise..........