Time to descend on the hooligans
The Ghana Football Association last week handed very heavy sanctions to Accra Hearts of Oak and some officials of the club for events leading up to their Premier League clash with Wa All Stars in Accra and the acts of vandalism exhibited by Hearts’ supporters during the match at the Accra Stadium.
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These violent acts meted out to the match officials gave the game a black eye as some officials of Hearts tried to calm the nerves of irate supporters who pelted the referee and his assistants for perceived injustice, as the home side lost their unbeaten run on home soil. The violent response by the home fans, which resulted in a holdup, was so awful that it could not go unpunished even though the sanctions took unusually long in coming.
Hearts were ordered to play three home matches behind closed doors (which was reviewed to two matches on appeal) in addition to various fines and suspensions handed to two officials of the club, Kwame Opare Addo and Barima Atruahene, both of whom pleaded guilty and later apologised for inciting fans against the match officials.
While the Graphic Sports applauds the adjudicating bodies of the FA -- Disciplinary Committee and Appeals Committee – for the decisive manner in which they dealt with the issue, it is about time that security was stepped up at the stadia during matches, by sending security personnel into the stands to serve as a deterrent to fans who take the law into their hands, as well as making it possible to arrest the perpetuators of such criminal acts, as pertains in other parts of the world.
All over the world, there has been improved crowd control during football matches, given new and emerging threats and the global fight against terrorism. And in the particular case of Ghana, matches involving Hearts and Kotoko, which have the potential for violence, require top-level security and modern crowd control methods such as was recommended by the Sam Okudjeto Commission on the May 9 Stadium disaster.
Under GFA regulations, clubs are sanctioned for violent acts by their supporters which result in the destruction of property or injuries, with the resultant effect of bringing the game into disrepute, as was evident in the Hearts-All Stars incident. But very often, irate supporters who instigate or start such acts of hooliganism are let off the hook while the clubs bear the brunt of such acts.
In the opinion of this paper, the most effective way of minimising such acts of hooliganism is to identify such hooligans, arrest and prosecute them to serve as a deterrent to other like-minded hoodlums who have been emboldened by the lack of willpower to arrest and prosecute them.
The sanctions handed to Hearts have huge financial implications for the club and other stakeholders but going forward, it is important for the National Sports Council, GFA and the security service to review their operation in respect of crowd control to ensure that security personnel are strategically positioned in the stands to act swiftly and decisively to apprehend hooligans who take the law into their hands.
