It’s the 21st century, an
era where football is no longer treated as back then in the 17th and
18th century but as an industry where lots of money is generated. In
fact hundreds of billions of US dollars are made from owning football teams
annually. No wonder some of the world’s richest people are investing greatly
into the sport.
Football or soccer as it is widely
known in greater parts of the world has found its way into the hearts of
Africans and gained its roots in the land to the extent of producing some great
and excellent players, the likes of Abedi
Ayew Pele, George Opong Weah, JJ Okocha, Roger Mila, Kanu as well as Samuel Eto’o Fils, Drogba, Essien, Yaya
Toure, Asamoah Gyan as the 21st century stars of Africa.
Ghana as a nation has improved considerably
on the African and world stage seeing them go through to the quarter finals of
the South African world cup 2010(the
first time hosted in Africa), the second African side to do so after Cameroun in Italia 1990. Despite all
the individualistic and national success in the sport, you would think a nation
like Ghana would treat soccer like a precious’ god’. But surprisingly that is
not the case.
Though Ghanaians love the sport so
passionately little has been done by officials and top flight teams to prove
it.
As at the 2011/2012 we all witnessed
many Ghanaian premier league teams with playing league matches with;
- No name brand jerseys: these are jerseys that are designed and made by individuals , that is to say that makers of the jerseys
- non-sponsored jerseys:
- no sponsor fees: these are jerseys
designed or made by name brands but instead of sponsoring or paying these teams
to wear their jerseys as it is advertised by the teams where ever they play,
the teams are readily happy to advertise these companies jerseys without
receiving any monies from them
The most amazing fact is that in
this 21st century top flight teams in the premier leagues in a
nation like Ghana put on jerseys which have do not have player names on them.
Teams like Accra hearts of oak were
all victims to this. It even went to the extent that players of such teams
changed the jersey numbers registered in their names at the beginning of the
season anytime they felt like doing so and did not face any sanctions or what so
ever from the Ghana Premier Board(GPB) and not even the GFA(Ghana Football
Association).
This is absolutely no good for Ghana
and certainly not for Africa soccer in this modern age of soccer advancement.
Let’s do our best to raise the game in Africa.
STAND TALL AND BE A PROUD AFRICAN (STABAPA).