I have never in my life seen a team that hates criticism than Kumasi Asante Kotko but the most sad aspect is that, they don't do the right thing in order to avoid criticism. If today, Kotoko’s administration led by Listowell Yesu Bukarson could come out with a press release to attack journalists and deny the behaviour of their fans at the Accra Sports Stadium, I’m not surprised due to his current position as public relations officer of the club.
A person whom l chose as my role model when he was a sports presenter at Kumasi based radio station Capital Radio. He was one of the most vocal critics of such hooligan behaviour of fans but today because of his position, he has to condemn his colleagues for pointing out the truth, hard as it is. Sad indeed.
We should face facts. Kotoko are not the only team in Ghana and there is no way l won’t report what l see at the stadium even if it means death. Nobody is an Accra Hearts of Oak fan but we always tell the truth. Sportsinghana.com have sworn to uproot this hooliganism canker from our league centres to improve the league.
Berekum Arsenal suffered the same fate of punishment for their fans misconduct last season and Kotoko too must be punished if the FA Disciplinary Committee assess the video clip of the game again. Kotoko are not above the football rules of this country and if they hate criticism they must advice their supporters to behave whenever they go to any stadium.
As security men are easily identified by their shoes, so are football clubs easily identified by their colours. A baby on that day at the Accra Sports Stadium could even identify Kotoko replica jerseys, they were dominant in the stone peddling sections.
I will repeatedly say that had Accra Hearts of Oak as a host team reacted, the story would have been different or had the military men on duty not learnt their lessons from the May 9 2001 disaster, we would have revisited May 9 if tear gas had been thrown.
We should skip these press releases that target media men who only report the truth. As Mario Balotelli asked with those words written in front of his shirt, ‘why always me,’ Kotoko as a team ought to borrow such sentence from Ballotelli; ‘Why always us, Kotoko.’ Listowell should ask; ‘Why always Kotoko?’
It started from the controversial boycott of the medal receiving at the President’s Cup back on July 1. If the team want to emulate other big teams in Africa, they must change their ways because you will only hear the news of Zamalek or Ahly when they have won a trophy. They don't scare the media from criticizing them.
I don’t hate Kotoko. It simply is my policy that I will weed out the bad deeds of every team with my articles to promote Ghana football. We don’t want to visit the dark and jungle ages where hooliganism was the order of the day and which certainly do our league no good.
Appellations are meant for those who deserve it, so if you do the right thing, the right thing would be said about you. Thanks.
*Credit: Raymond Yeboah – Sportsinghana.com***
