Accra Hearts of Oak coach Jones Attuquayefio has stoked up passions between the five-times league champions and their arch rivals Kumasi Asante Kotoko by accusing the Porcupine Warriors of complaining too much about refereeing and everything else.
Jones led his side to a record fifth straight title this year with two round of matches left.
The challenge from Kotoko this year was more sustained than it's been in previous years but the Kumasi based club has been arguing that Hearts' dominance have been aided by official conspiracy against them.
The club has complained bitterly in the past about refereeing and particularly rulings at the GFA disciplinary committee, which they say go against them without any justification. Kotoko lost at least four points on disciplinary grounds this season alone.
That prompted the club's German coach Ernst Middendorp to question Hearts' dominance in a recent newspaper interview. He said, "Everyone knows it's not our fault that we did not win this year.
Points were deducted from our build up for no justifiable reason. "Isn't it strange that every club with the exception of Hearts and Dawu have lost points at the disciplinary committee. Here it seems the establishment favour Hearts too much," he stated.
In a reaction to that, Jones told the Africa Sports newspaper that comments like Middendorps' "should be treated with the contempt it deserves."
Jones then went to on to suggest that if anyone had cause to complain, it is the smaller clubs and not Kotoko who alongside Hearts are the biggest in Ghana.
"Hearts and Kotoko attract the best players, have the most money, the largest support base and wield the considerable influence in Ghana football. It leaves the field unlevel for the others and it is they who should complain", Jones said.
He then advised his archrivals to put a stop to the complaints since it breed negative tendencies in the playing body. "Footballers always want something to blame defeats on.
It's either their boot is not good, that the referee was unfair or that the pitch is bad. It's a habit that should not be encouraged and it becomes dangerous when you see club officials tow that line.
"We all feel slighted by decisions once in a while but the last thing you have to do is to make your players feel there are ready made excuses to explain their losses.
