Cecil Jones Attuquayefio, head coach of Accra Hearts of Oak, one of the clubs at the centre of the May 9 Accra Sports Stadium disaster said a responsible and responsive GFA is what is needed to see the league through without further disasters.
Speaking to the GNA after testifying before the Presidential Commission probing the disaster, Jones said the GFA must initiate various programmes to educate the masses on the dangers inherent in violence at the various league centres.
He said what the GFA has refused to do over the years is to convene consultative meetings with the clubs to find solutions to the rising spate of hooliganism that has been evident in the domestic league for quite some time now.
"We are all aware that some league centres are very dangerous terrains to thread on because of the attitude of the spectators there," he said.
Jones named Tamale, Nkawkaw, Sunyani and Dawu as centres that opposing teams dread very much because of the potential danger they pose to the lives of visiting players and their officials.
"Because of the inaction of the GFA to nip it in the bud, it has gradually crept to other parts of the country and it now poses a very grave danger to the national league."
In answer to a question, the coach said the clubs must create the necessary fora to educate their supporters on the rules of the game, especially the supremacy of the centre referee during matches because many fans think it is an obligation for him to uphold a decision of his assistants.
He said though the GFA has not lived up to expectation in securing the game, it would not be out of place for the teams to form safety watchdog committees among the various groups or chapters or circles they have to monitor the behaviour of fans at the stadiums.
Jones said, "this would lead to the identification of those who start trouble at match venues for possible ban or prosecution because once they start other people get infected and it spreads very fast."
The coach who was recently named African Coach of the year 2000 said though it is regrettable that many able bodied soccer fans lost their lives at a match involving Hearts and Kotoko, the incident must serve as a clarion call to the GFA to wake up to its responsibilities in order to save the game from the thaws of miscreants.
On the resumption of the league, Jones said the current of Hearts cannot be compared with others in the premiership and promised the supporters of the Phobians that Hearts would win the trophy as an appeasement to their supporters who died on May 9.
