Social media was abuzz with subtle digs at the Ghana Premier League when news emerged of Wednesday’s match between Berekum Chelsea and Elmina Sharks being called off.
The match was called off because the stadium for the match – the Berekum Golden City Park – had been rented out to a church to organize their Easter events.
The park, which belongs to the District Assembly, was put up for commerce because the churches pay more to use the park than football clubs would pay for the use of the facility.
The decision coming just 48 hours before the match presents several difficulties to the league – not least to the traveling club who had already arrived in the city for the game.
The organization, from the federation itself to match officials, media and fans have all been disrupted by the late announcement by Berekum Chelsea.
But for some, particularly those hostile towards the federation, it was time to celebrate because the saga had fallen into their mantra that nothing good would come of the Ghana Premier League.
Well-endowed with the knowledge why such a thing would occur in Ghana, the vague announcement is just put out there that a match in the league has been postponed because the place has been rented out to a church.
For the ordinary fan or to those unaware, the decision to postpone the match was because the GFA has chosen to rent out the place in the chase of profits to the detriment of the league.
A little explanation out of just the mere post would have given the bigger picture to the ordinary fan of the situation of most clubs in Ghana because most of the pitches are owned by government.
The Berekum Golden City Park is owned and controlled by a government agency that is keen on making profits to maintain the pitches and facilities so those of their clients with the purse are given the priority.
As such, several clubs in Ghana have, in the past, suffered similar fate that Berekum Chelsea are suffering now simply because most stadiums in the country belong to government.
So programmes for the leagues can be disrupted by such considerations regardless of who runs the GFA or the league since the stadiums belong to government.
An early warning from Berekum Chelsea to the GFA could have resulted in an alternative venue being arranged to prevent a postponement and such occurrences can only be described as force majeure as this was not premeditated.
This situation calls for an urgent need for clubs in Ghana to start thinking and putting together their facilities so they are not told when and how they can use their pitches.
This mishap cannot be the yardstick to judge the state of the league because there are too many positives going for the top-flight than the few mishaps.
The high status on all media platforms – from traditional to the modern media shows that the interest is big for one match to overshadow the progress made in 240 matches.
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