The sad state of the Ghana Premier League

Three weeks into the year 2016 and we are yet to fix a date for the 2015/16 football season. In fact, we are yet to even confirm the 16 clubs who will be participating in the annual league. This is nothing new to followers of Ghana football as every season for the past decade is greeted with court issues and ends with boardroom wrangling.

Like the proverbial Vulture, the football people cry and swear to build a new nest when it’s the raining season but as soon as the rain stops it forget every resolution it made.

How many seasons haven’t we sworn not to allow any board room and court issues to bedevil the league? I will not take you far, just last season we had to start the 2014/15 season in 2015 with a packed fixture list to make up for the lost time.

The league started with little or no public interest as it was played concomitantly with the AFCON, the biggest sporting event on the continent, a tournament that featured the beloved Blackstars. It was King Faisal Versus GFA now it’s Tema Youth Versus GFA alongside Techiman City with the numerous board room litigations surrounding their promotion into the elite division.

Yes the various adjudication bodies at the FA are slow with their sitting and ruling but the main problem is the lack of trust in the system. No matter the outcome of a case before them the losing party always raise a conspiracy theory.

That is, in a case involving club A and club B. When A wins B thinks the judgment has been compromised when B wins A turns to the same conspiracy theory. Sadly association football in Ghana has been reduced to a criminal gang where the word trust is alien except it’s time to share monies or wage a war against the local media.

Nobody knows when the 2015/16 season will start. It seems the major stake holders don’t care. Clubs have signed players, the already poor clubs are paying players monthly wages for them to engage in only friendly games. Coaches have halted their training plans since they have no idea when the season is starting. Well, the media is crying more than the bereaved. But why wouldn’t one cry more than the bereaved when the bereaved is a hapless masochist who enjoys pains. What is a ‘Football Association’? Who make up the ‘Football Association’? Isn’t it an association of clubs in a sovereign country? Who benefits or suffers from the actions and inactions of the Football Associations? These same clubs. So why are they behaving like kumawood style witches who sacrifices the joy of a long day for just a few minutes of happiness at night.

The senior club officials have sacrificed the big cash cow for few milk they will suck from serving in the management committees of the various national teams. There is nothing like the G.F.A. What we have now is GAFA, Ghana Anti-Football Association because every action of the members of this association shows they are anti-football.