Soccer or football has grown to become one of the most
exciting sports and lucrative business ventures in the world. Fortunately for
us in Ghana,we are a football nation, the problem is, our domestic league is
nothing to write home about. Our domestic league is known as the Glo Premier
League, as telecomunications giant Glo, is the title sponsor.
With clubs dating as far back as 1911, I believe it’s about
time the league became a major force in ,atleast, Africa. It’s true that the league was ranked as the
11th best league in Africa by the IFFHS from 2001-2010. The IFFHS is The International Federation of Football History
& Statistics (IFFHS) and it is an organization that chronicles the
history and records of association football. Honestly, I don’t know where we
rank currently but the league is not really patronised.
I will start with our dear referees. We as Ghanaians know
what happened earlier this year(2012),it got to a point, referees had not been paid since the sixth week of the premier
league. Well, I’m very sure being a referee is no
charity job, so why did it have to take so long before their deserved money was
paid to them.No motivation, it’s obvious that some of the even better paid referees in foreign
leagues sometimes take bribes, so you can just imagine what a hungry referee will do. Respect to all just referees though.
Then there is the jerseys of the teams. Most of their
jerseys are so not attractive and doesn’t enthuse their fans.Ever wondered why
most Ghanaians spend money on jerseys of foreign teams? Yes their support of
the team counts but the design of the jersey also is a huge factor. People wear
these foreign jerseys to school,social gatherings and even religious meetings.
It has now become a Ghanaian popular culture for youth, both male and female,
to wear the jersey of their various foreign football team each time there is a
match. I hardly see them doing that for the domestic teams. To make matters
worse, the local jerseys are not even available to buy.
The last thing I will talk about is the access. Frankly
speaking, foreign leagues are more accessible than our own domestic league. You
can easily access information such as match dates, top goal scorers and even
highlights of matches of foreign leagues if you want to. Most of these foreign leagues
have adapted to the change of the 21st Century and have joined the
pool of social media such as Youtube,Facebook and Twitter, giving fans more
access to their league. It’s no surprise most of us Ghanaians ditch local
matches for foreign matches in elite leagues such as the Barclays Premier
League(England) and Spanish La Liga(Spain).
We need to improve our league,for it will create employment
for those with the football gift,such as referees,coaches and players,open our
country to investors and also for sports entertainment to keep our worries and
boredom at bay. I also urge sports journalist in Ghana to make our local
football league more interesting and accessible. As a native of Sekondi-Takoradi
in the Western region of Ghana, I applaud Skyy Power FM, Aseda FM and Melody FM
for their efforts in trying to make our domestic league interesting. Not
forgetting John Amoako Adu, a vibrant youth,for giving us our own version of “Goal.com”,known
as “kicksportsgh.com”, a website that gives you up to date information,such as
match dates,transfer news,top scorers,etc on our domestic league. I look at such
endeavours and I say, It’s about that time!