The high cost of football hooliganism
In the last few weeks, hooliganism has notoriously smuggled its way into the spotlight in Ghana football and raised a lot of concerns about its potential to destroy domestic competitions.
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Since irate supporters of Accra Hearts of Oak pelted match officials during their league game with Wa All Stars in Accra, the Graphic Sports has repeatedly warned stakeholders in the game, particularly the clubs, the Ghana Football Association (GFA), the Premier League Board (PLB) and the security agencies, about the need to take crowd control more seriously.
The rowdy behaviour by the Hearts fans for perceived injustice by the referee and his assistants were red flags we all overlooked until hooliganism blew in our faces at all levels of the game.
However, the alleged assault on the coach of Division One side Elmina Sharks, Kobina Amissah, by supporters of Proud FC after a game between the two sides at the Sekondi Gyandu Park last Saturday was one too many which may just have cost the GN Division One League of its sponsor, the GN Bank, after the chairman of Groupe Nduom indicated last Monday that he had asked the bank to withdraw its sponsorship of the competition.
Even though the GFA Executive Committee acted swiftly by ordering a temporary ban of the Gyandu Park as a league centre due to safety concerns, the league may be hit very hard if Dr Nduom carries through his threat to withdraw the sponsorship of the Division One League.
Corporate bodies which sponsor sporting activities such as league matches due to the commercial benefits they stand to gain from such partnerships take a dim view of anything that has the potential to tarnish their brand image through negative publicity.
Thus the immediate response by Dr Nduom is understandable, not only because his club has been direct victims of hooliganism on two separate occasions but also because he had warned of a possible abrogation of the sponsorship contract almost a year ago when a similar act of hooliganism occured after a match between Sharks and Ebusua Dwarfs at the Nduom Sports Complex at Elmina.
Last week, the FA slapped Division One side King Solomon with a hefty fine after their supporters assaulted match officials following their home loss to Accra Great Olympics. And only a week earlier, football-related violence descended on the National Women’s League when players of Ampem Darkua were assaulted after a match against Northern Ladies in Tamale, leading to the subsequent ban of the Tamale Stadium Annex.
With the GFA already sweating to find a title sponsor for the Premier League following the suspension of its sponsorship by Capital Bank, a cancellation of the sponsorship of the Division One League will eventually cripple the competition.
It is the expectation of this paper that the GFA and its stakeholders will address issues of hooliganism more seriously than is being done now, as the larger implications of the growing incidence of football-related violence could turn potential sponsors away and eventually affect the development of the game.