A “Ghana Goal” Rule By FIFA?

By Jermaine Nkrumah

May be we could have won it all; may be not. What no one in the world can waive off, however, is the possibility of Ghana’s first World Cup Championship if that clear, inevitable goal had not been illegally stopped by Uruguay’s Suarez. One moment, Ghana was headed into the semi-finals; the very next, there was heartache felt across an entire continent and beyond among the African Diaspora. It is hard to imagine how any country can suffer such dramatic turn of events precipitated by rules-protected cheating and not seek to push for a revisiting of the rule book. The Ghana Football Association (GFA) should not only seek a change in the FIFA rule book to avoid a repeat of another “Suarez,” it should push to have the resulting new rule named after Ghana to compensate the nation for becoming the worst possible victim in World Cup Soccer history.

Victimology is the practice of naming laws and policies after victims whose demise prompted the enactment of those laws. In Olympia, Washington State in the United States, Joey Levick was beaten and left in a ditch to die; Dane Rempfer was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver; and Anton Skeen died because a seat belt failed to hold him during a rollover accident. These three tragedies weren't related. But in each case, the victims' parents formed the same thought: There ought to be a law - one that would make it less likely that anyone else would die that way.

So "Anton's Law," "the Joey Levick Bill" and "the Dane Rempfer Bill" came before the Washington State Legislature, riding on the emotions of families who channeled their mourning into crusades. And while it's not clear whether the measures that bear the names of Levick, Rempfer and Skeen would have prevented their deaths, they are part of a growing body of laws inspired by - and named for - victims of violent crimes or accidents.

Megan’s Law is named after a 7-year-old Hamilton Township, New Jersey girl named Megan Nicole Kanka. On July 29, 1994, she was lured into her neighbor’s home with the promise of a puppy and was brutally sexually assaulted and murdered by a two-time convicted sex offender who had been convicted in a 1981 attack on a 5-year-old child and an attempted sexual assault on a 7-year-old. Sparked by community outrage, petitions began circulating throughout the state of New Jersey demanding the right to be made aware of sexual predators. Megan’s parents, Maureen and Richard Kanka, had gathered more than 430,000 signatures, and 89 days after Megan’s disappearance the first state law that mandated active community notification was signed into law, New Jersey’s Megan’s Law.

Ghana may not have been the first country to have her goal in an international competition illegally blocked by a regular player. Similarly, these children were not the first to suffer their respective tragedies as a result of a statutory vacuum. But some people, including their parents, decided that the vacuum must not continue to exist, and thereby exposing other children to similar mishaps. Ghana may never again end up at the receiving end of another crucial goal illegally blocked by a regular player. But just as those who lost their children through these unfortunate accidents and criminal behavior decided that no one should suffer similar fates, and thus pushed hard to have laws enacted to prevent future mishaps, so should GFA push FIFA to institute a new rule creating what would be called a “Ghana Goal.”

The parents of these children would not get their children back as a result of these new laws, but the memory of those children will forever live on. Similarly, Ghana may not know if her name would have been added to the list of past World Cup winners after July 11, 2010. But a new FIFA rule creating a “Ghana Goal” would deservingly usher Ghana into FIFA’s history books. There cannot be any better consolation.

-- Jermaine Nkrumah