Sunshine after rainfall

There is always sunshine after a heavy downpour, so says the sages. This proverbial saying manifested last Sunday after a bruised, down-hearted Accra Hearts of Oak travelled to Berekum to brighten the corner where they were and came out victorious with a lone-goal win over the dreaded Chelsea. 

Last week I mentioned in this column that for the past 50 years of my involvement in sportswriting, I had never seen Hearts receive a humiliating ordeal from their arch-rivals, Kumasi Asante Kotoko in such a bizarre manner, courtesy an own goal scored too easily by their own trusted goalkeeper Abdoulaye Soulama, a Burkinabe.  To add insult to a painful injury for the century-old club, Soulama was disqualified for the next three matches due to a red card he received in the same match. Then came the verdict which was meted out to Hearts on their indisciplined supporters during the Hearts-Wa All Stars match after the Kotoko defeat and that must have caused a lot of concern to the management, the technical team and the playing body.  It was, therefore, expected that it would throw them out of gear in their subsequent matches. What would happen to a team which was told that for the next three home matches they would play in an empty stadium at their home ground.

That punishment is described in several quarters as the worst detriment in all past fooftball  offences  by any club in the country and with the present state of affairs where we play a league without a head-sponsor you can imagine what will happen to an expensive club like Hearts.

There have been occasions when due to hooliganism  by supporters at a particular centre, the club was made to play their home matches away from home, and such punitive measures had been described as reformative to ensure sanity at the home grounds of the club after serving the punishment.

I don't remember when a team was made to play at home without a crowd, even though such measures have been common in other African countries and other continental venues. And what makes Hearts fans most unhappy is the long ban on two officials who were accused of inciting the crowd to violence, and the fines imposed on them.

In fact, every football lover has taken the recent Hearts punishment with a pinch of salt, as it could happen to any club, and the punishment would come without a slightest warning to the officials who might have caused such provocation. They are indeed asking whether the punishment would not actually kill the game at these hard times that the enthusiasm is showing improvement and everything must have been taken into consideration, including the level of officiating.

Indeed some of our referees, for obvious reasons, cannot remove the cloak of bias when they are made to handle some of the matches, and it is high time they were also brought up to answer questions relating to some of the high level of indiscipline displayed at certain matches. Of course, I cannot possibly see how they can accuse themselves of incompetence when they write their reports on matches. 

Incidentally, despite the bad news that affected Hearts who last suffered their worst defeat at the hands of Kotoko, they were not deterred and in the midst of the dramatic trauma within the week, moved to Berekum to vent their spleen on Chelsea and with that toppled Wa All Stars who were occupying the top position, as they fell at the hands of Techiman City over the weekend. I believe all football fans the world over who have suffered severe punishment would give Hearts the plaudits for their win at Berekum. Hearts, by the verdict from the disciplinary committee, are supposed to play Sekondi Hasaacas in their Match Day 12 in an empty Accra Sports Stadium. But the feeling is that the form displayed at Berekum would definitely be repeated at home, whether there are fans or no fans in the stands. 

Perhaps one match fans would love to watch at the same empty stadium would be against Hearts’ city rivals, Liberty Professionals, in two weeks’ time. Last season, Hearts had to struggle in the first leg for a 1-1 draw with Liberty, and worked extra hard to narrowly win by a lone goal. The third and last "empty stadium" match will be in the second round against Dreams FC, and that will be immediately after Hearts have visited Dawu. Now what lessons will the clubs and their teeming fans learn from Hearts' punishment? With financial problems hitting hard at the clubs in recent times one wonders how any club or any lover of a club for that matter, would conduct himself or herself to avoid such hard punitive measures. My real concern is how all will be law abiding in the face of difficult provocation.