Nyantakyi warn football fans

Kwesi Nyantakyi, President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), has told football fans to reminisce what happened to football fans 15 years ago when they go to match centers.

Today, Monday May 9, 2016, marks exactly 15 years when about 126 precious lives perished at the Accra Sports Stadium in a league match involving Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko.

The sad day was commemorated at the forecourt of the Accra Sports Stadium earlier today, and Mr Nyantakyi used the occasion to remind football fans the repercussions that accompany violence at the stadia.

“Any time people gather to commemorate those who departed on May 9, 2001 when they came here to support their clubs, it is also an occasion to sound a warning to the living and to also remind ourselves the startling truth and hard lessons that we should learn from whatever disaster that occurred,” Mr Nyantakyi said.

“Exactly 15 years ago, more than 125 soccer fans who decided to come to the Accra Sports Stadium to cheer their teams – Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko perished under very sad circumstances,” he said.

“Many of them died after the match and most of them died in circumstances that could have been avoided,” he noted.

Mr Nyantakyi also warned clubs to control their fans behaviour to ensure sanity.

“The Football Association have learnt very hard lessons from it. It has influenced regulations and statues of football to the extent that we look very hard at violent conducts at games,” he said.