THERE is no denying the fact that football in this country has a lot of followings. This is often manifested anytime any of our national teams is playing in international tourneys.
EVEN at the domestic level, Ghanaians still patronise the Ghana Premier League (GPL), Divisions One and Two Leagues and Colts football, albeit the patronage has gone down of late.
THUS, one would not be wrong to say that the patronage of our domestic football has reduced drastically compared to what pertained in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s.
TODAY, many of our GPL stadia at the weekend when matches are played tend to be characterised by sparse spectators. The patronage is even worst when there are mid-week matches.
IN some cases some of these sparse spectators are seen behind fenced perimeters of the fields with some fans sitting and squatting on a hill.
SAD isn’t it? But this is the reality of football in this country! How can our sporting authorities live with the state of our “professional” soccer fields after all these years?
HOW can our ruling elite continue to administer such decline in sports provision and delivery whilst at the same time the Ghana Football Association (GFA) elite fly first class around the world and stay in expensive hotels at variance with the state of football at home?
WHY are we tolerating such executive perfidy and opulence at the expense of development and growth?
TODAY paper has been compelled to comment on this matter following scenes of a live football game between Medeama and Aduana which match was shown live on GTV Sports Plus at the weekend.
ANY football fan who watched this game would see the shameful sight of fans behind a fenced perimeter of the field sitting and squatting on a hill to watch this GPL match.
YES we agree that the various clubs must ensure that they have decent home stadia for their matches. However, is it not the responsibility of the GFA and sports ministry to ensure that this happens?
ONE thing our sports authorities must understand is that we cannot have world champions when we continue to pay lip-service to the development sports facilities such us good football stadia that will attract thousands of fans to watch matches.
AND it is through this huge patronage at our various stadia of the GPL that adequate revenue can be raised to improve upon football in this country.
IT is in the light of the above that the paper is calling on the sports ministry, Professional League Board (PLB) and the GFA to ensure that stadia of the various GPL and Divisions One and Two clubs are decent and good enough for competitive matches.
WE must not think only of the playing teams but more importantly think of the welfare of the fan who will be paying to go and watch these matches.
AND until the various stadia of the football clubs in this country are given the needed face-lifts the number of people who go to the stadium to watch matches will continue to reduce, which eventually could kill Ghanaians’ passion for football.
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