Former Minister for Youth and Sports, Enoch Teye Mensah
was the first to suggest the importance to run a professional league in Ghana
in 1993. Though the GFA cup championship
was running at that time, The Ningo Prampram Member of Parliament lamented on
the amateurish way of the organization of football clubs in the country.
His idea gave birth to the emergence of the Ghana
premier league now called the first plus capital premier league after signing a
lucrative deal with the First Capital Plus Bank. On Sunday 19th December, 1993
the Ghana premier league for the very first time was played. It took place in 6
league centers across the country and Ash gold were the first team to win the
“professional league trophy”. In September 2013, SuperSport secured
the television production and broadcast rights to the Ghana Premier League
after signing a deal with the GFA.
The Premier league for some time now
has been experiencing some negative changes which has in effect killed the
interest of soccer fans and also affected the management of the various clubs. In May 2001
Accra Sports Stadium faced a grave disaster in which 126 soccer fans died in a
stampede after a Premier League match between Accra Hearts of Oak and their
arch rivals, Asante Kotoko Football Club. This incident shows how enthused
soccer fans were whenever there was a premier league match ongoing. I quiet
remember in the early 2000, any time you hear people discussing football every
weekend then it’s about Kotoko and Hearts of oak but this is not so any more,
football fans prefer to watch EPLS than our local league. They playing English league all right, but our stadia was always
full because the boys were playing very well .The Question that has
been bordering my mind for some time now is WHAT IS REALLY WRONG WITH OUR
PREMIER LEAGUE? Interacting with some soccer fans they have attributed the
mystery behind the dwindling of the premier league to the lack of pure talents
in the various football club of which I totally agree. Where are our talented
footballers? Long time ago when you hear names like Rev Osei kofi, Robert Mensah and Prince Opoku
Nti in the Kotoko team playing against
the likes of Mohammed Polo, peter Lamptey and Malma Acquah of Hearts Of Oak can
cause a massive traffic in the country. I think it is about time our Football
official resurrect our soccer academies for them to be able to capture n
nurture the football talent at the young stage. I wish we still live in the Era
where football where for the “kubolos” and wasn’t seen as a professional job.
The moment football became lucrative in Ghana Football lost it talent. One
problem that use to battle my mind was the reason why most of our good players prefer
going to European countries to play and abandoning their own league. But before
I started writing this peace I understood why. Who will trade Gold for silver? Nobody
will. This is how the league has become, our local league players are not financially
taken care of, so any brighter opportunity that smiles at them, and they grab
that smile immediately. In my opinion I think if our local leagues are made
more attractive and attention is paid on the resurrection of the various soccer
academies, our local leagues will erect again.
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