GHANA’S LONG, LONG WAIT
Three years, no domestic champion: coronavirus is just the latest crisis
If you think British football has been disrupted in recent times, spare a thought for the people of Ghana. Since the summer of 2018, the country’s top clubs have barely played a game.
Aduana Stars were crowned champions of the Ghanaian Premier League in October 2017, but since then it’s been chaos pretty much all the way.
Eight months later, clubs were halfway through the 2018 season when an investigative journalist aired a documentary that would plunge domestic football into crisis. Entitled Number 12, it was a sting operation showing appalling corruption in Ghanaian football. In particular, it showed the powerful Ghana FA boss, Kwesi Nyantakyi, grabbing wads of dollar bills at a hotel in the UAE.
All domestic football was promptly suspended, and Nyantakyi was banned from the sport for life. “They were difficult times, because for a mid- table club like us, we rely on football to continue – to transfer players and make money,” explains Nana Darlington, CEO of Premier League club Bechem United.
It wasn’t until the end of March 2019 – a full nine months later – that a temporary Special Competition eventually kicked off. It lasted three months and was designed to keep clubs busy, as well as providing the country’s representatives for the African Champions League and Confederation Cup. When that was done, there was… er, absolutely nothing until the last week of December, when league football finally restarted.
“We spent 15 out of 18 months inactive – imagine how it affected matchday revenues, and even more damaging, the interest in local football,” says George Addo, one of Ghana’s top football commentators.
The concern became a full- blown crisis when, just three months after the league had resumed, the first coronavirus case was recorded in Ghana.
On March 15, all domestic football was suspended. “That was a huge blow for the entire industry,” Ghana FA boss Kurt Okraku tells FFT. “Any little momentum that we had was blown away.”
Unlike in Europe, where health systems ensured that football restarted in either May or June, Ghana’s government decided against risking it. “They banned all contact sports, including football, so players could not even train,” laments Okraku.
The effects could be far reaching, too: whenever international football returns, countries where the game restarted much earlier will have an advantage. Considering that between 2018 and today – even before coronavirus – none of Ghana’s national teams advanced to the last eight of any FIFA or CAF finals, things could go downhill fast.
“When things revert to normal again, we have to be incredibly innovative to help make up for lost time,” admits Ghana’s national team coach, Charles Akonnor. “Otherwise, the danger is our reputation will sink even lower.”
Tentatively, domestic football has been pencilled in to relaunch in October, but there’s no telling what reception it will receive – nor how quickly a proud football nation can rally from years of inactivity.