Don't wish your league was just like this?
Don't wish your league was just like this?
Posted: 2011-05-25 13:05
KickOffGhana.com's Michael Oti Adjei has a look at the match-fixing allegations that are swamping the Glo Premier League.
I have developed a thing for quotes in the last few days. Every day I am pouring through so called wise sayings from the most famous men to unknown ones.
Every one of them seems to fit a particular situation but the one that describes my thoughts last Sunday as I sat through a dramatic final day of the English Premier League was one from our everyday lives: "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride".
Sat home, with my remote control in hand, I followed the final day of the English season in awe of its competitiveness and the spirit it is played in.
Manchester United were guaranteed champions and still put in everything they could. In the end their 4-2 win relegated Blackpool.
At White Hart Lane in London, Spurs beat Birmingham City to send them down. As scores came in from various stadiums, the standings changed by the second, emotions swung from one high to one low and goals changed so many things.
It was compelling television, unbelievable drama but above all a day that won the Premiership many more friends than they already have.
The honesty in the games bowled me over. Players with nothing to gain but applying full effort in a spirit that was commendable to say the least.
Around the same time that Sunday, I checked into Peace FM. With the the "Oh, Oh" signature tune playing, they run through the scores from the Glo Premier League at half time and my heart sunk.
Every club in danger of going down was winning, players in desperate need of goals to finish top-scorers were on course for a hat-trick. Was I surprised? No. Just amazed by how incredibly predictable it all was.
Match-fixing allegations are serious and if you don't have evidence, you don't make them. In that sense any suggestions that because clubs in danger of going down won there must have been something wrong, is not on.
Kotoko lost to Mighty Jets by two goals, Hearts beat Aduana Stars, Berekum Chelsea with the title sealed lost to Berekum Arsenal in a seven-goal game.
Emmanuel Clottey scored a hat-trick for the losing side that took him three goals clear in the Goal King standings, just as he did some years back at Great Olympics.
The sum total of that means seven clubs will go into the final two games of the season with it all to do.
With that has come growing apprehension about whether it will all be played clean, whether we can't easily predict what I'll happen again with the unbelievable ease we managed last weekend.
There may be no evidence of wrongdoing but if Ghanaian clubs were bothering to check what the rest of us and the world thought of them, they would have been saddened.
When I tweeted last week about how all the clubs in danger of going down were winning with ease, the reaction was to say: "Did you expect anything different? Here it always happens!"
The fact that there are openly discussions on radio about alleged match-fixing, the fears of clubs and the gripping fear of many that games are not being played clean should alone be a major worry for the game's bosses here.
This is a League not many people care to watch. Attendances are dropping on a regular basis, referee performances are questioned like nowhere else and people's belief in the quality of the League is dropping.
Now, more than ever before, when match-day comes, many football fans are resigned to what the scoreline will be.
I listened to Kotoko fans after their defeat to Mighty Jets. Their pain at the result was evident but, above all, their belief that their club had lost a pre-arranged game was shocking.
In many other places the suggestion by club fans that their club is deliberately playing it soft will be a taboo subject. Here it is a matter for radio discussions. Things can't degenerate any worse.
And the rest of us have heard enough from people in the game to believe things are not all clean.
Herbert Addo, the man who bosses former champions Aduana Stars, sounded like a dejected man on JoyFM the other day as he begged clubs to make the final two games of the season worth it.
"In Ghana we make a lot of mistakes", he said. "We wait to the last minute. Now that it's only two matches to play people have been talking, instigating. It's not good for football. It doesn't allow the technical men and players to concentrate.
"I will advise my people. If you want to survive you must play. If you don't organise your home, and ask for help, I wont. It's not in my dictionary."
This from a man involved in the game, suggesting instigation, suggestion people ask for help, and declaring it is not in his dictionary.
The clubs can still stand on the where is the concrete evidence argument. Many of us don't have it at the minute. But while we may not have concrete evidence what Ghanaian clubs ignore is that the doubts about the cleanness of the game that are gradually growing in our minds could be more powerf than the stonewall evidence of wrongdoing that they always demand.
Comment on this article:
TERMS OF USE: The comments posted below do not reflect the views of KickOff.com. Users are reminded that no misuse of this comment facility will be tolerated. Any abusive, racist or inflammatory comments will be deleted and the user banned. Please report abusive posts to editor@kickoff.com