By: MICHAEL KESSEY
Sports Analyst
[email protected]
There is no deniable fact that Mother Ghana is blessed with a lot of football talents and it is imperative for our football leadership to focus their attention a bit on the lower divisions. It saddens my heart if I look at the way and manner our football leaders and football loving fans look indifferent about our lower divisions. Having forgotten the fact that the players we see in the Premiership came from these lower divisions and if we focus our attention a bit on the lower divisions our football will get to it peak. Our football leaders are good at writing or coming out with proposals but it implementation to work to perfection is their problem. Catch them young is a sweet word every Sports leader says whenever he/she is given the chance to talk to the public and as soon as they leave the place they forget catching them young at the grassroots level is the only way to Sports development in the country. They tend to forget the slogan of ?Youths are the leaders of Tomorrow? is not a flute.
It?s rather unfortunate many football loving fans and football leadership in recent past feel the good players are the ones they see in the so Called premier league which does not deserve the name but rather the name it deserves is amateur league. Let us not forget that three (3) first division teams who will qualify from the middle-league are promoted every year into the premiership .Ghanaian football loving fans will agree with me that teams such as Dansoman Liberty Professionals, Brekum Chelsea football Club, Feyenoord Academy, Aduana FC, Kpando Heart of Lions in the previous years have made a remarkable impact ever since they were promoted to the premiership to the extent that majority of players we see in our Junior National teams and the senior National team the ?Black Stars were product of the above mentioned teams and it is a clear indication that if proper care is given to the lower divisions our Premier league will be very attractive and will produced matured players.
I would like to ask if the good players are the ones who have had the opportunity to play in the Premiership then how come a lower division like Abedi Pele?s Nania FC outplayed a lot of Premier division teams and went to beat Kumasi Kotoko in the final to Clinch the FA Cup to win a place in the Confederation cup at the expense of these big teams. Why would Aduana FC a newly promoted in their first season in the previous seasons won the league. I would like to say we have equally good players in the lower divisions and when given the chance will prove they have a lot in their sleeves to offer football loving fans in Ghana. These players have nobody to push them as to whom you know which has become the order of the day and has denied them entirely. If my memory will serve me right former Black Stars player Emmanuel Armah Senegal was not playing for any big team but was spotted in a lower division and he featured regularly for the Senior National team the Black Stars.
If the Ghana football will make a headway then we have to focus our attention more on the lower divisions so that when the Michael Essien, Kwadwo Asamoah,?Sulley Ali Muntari, Asamoah Djan and many others retires from active football we will get possible replacements to represent our dear nation Ghana. Football is a serious business and because it has created employment for some youths of the country who could have ended up in the street and as such it should not be treated anyhow. In the olden days the passion football loving fans used to watch juvenile football and other lower divisions? matches was appreciably high, but today there is relatively nothing to write home about juvenile football and division one, two and three. Our football leaders take delight in watching the EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A matches. What at all is the FA and Division One league Board doing for these lower divisions? Can?t they get sponsorship package for our lower divisions?
Because they look indifferent about the welfare of the lower divisions, that is why the best of security is not given to these lower divisions when they are playing matches in the various stadia. We have had course to raise concerns because it is a pity we have lost a referee who was a bread winner all because referees officiating the lower division?s league are left at the mercy of supporters. If our football leaders would focus their attention a bit on the lower division the rate at which players rush into the premier teams will minimize and that we will get matured players playing in the Premiership and not players when their coaches want them to go and replace a colleague who has had a bad day in a match will beg their coaches not to use them.
How can our football leaders be cruel to these lower divisions to the extent that when they are playing the middle ?league matches in the various centers will play without an ambulance? What happens if a player collapses in a match?
It is about time our football leader?s pay our referees who officiate matches in the lower division at the right time after our teams have paid for their officiating fees. I would like to take this little opportunity to appeal to our football leaders to focus their attention a bit on the lower divisions so that it will be very attractive like the Championship in England and elsewhere in the world. My passionate appeal goes to the Sports ministry and the GFA to try and inject some money into the lower divisions from Black Stars World Cup qualification money from FIFA and see if our lower divisions will not yield the needed results and put our league to its full flight that would produce quality materials for our football clubs that would give a good account of themselves in the CAF Champions league and Confederation Cup. LONG LIVE GHANA FOOTBALL
