When the history of the 50 year old national football league of Ghana is written,two names that would feature prominently would be the late John Ackah Blay Miezah of Sekondi Eleven Wise fame and Herbert Mensah formerly of Kumasi Asante Kotoko and currently chief executive of Obuasi Ashgold . These two gentlemen with their flamboyant style in football administration put a lot of life into the league and were always the toast of the media.

It was Blay Miezah who in 1983, put the league on a high pedestal with his catchy “akarakachii” slogan and filled the airwaves and newspapers with heavy advertisements on league matches involving Eleven Wise. It was an exciting innovation which caught up well with the football public and no wonder all matches involving Eleven Wise became a sell out.

Blay Miezah went a step further. His player motivation was first class and he was able to strengthen the team with a number of talented players including almost all the top stars who had deserted the club spearheaded by John Bannerman, the wizard dribbler who created Asante Kotoko’s winning goal by Opoku Nti in the historic 1983 Africa Cup triumph over Al Ahly of Egypt in Kumasi.

Following Eleven Wise’s rather unimpressive show in the 1983 Africa Cup Winners Cup that saw them bowing out quite early via Agaza of Togo, Blay Miezah pumped in more money. He took the entire registered players of 35 and their technicians on a three week expensive tour of Brazil, home of football to tune them up for the 1984 league. No wonder they put up a splendid performance to earn a respectable second spot behind Accra Hearts of Oak who bagged 28 pts with Wise collecting 25 pts.

Eleven Wise continued to be a strong force and placed third in the 1985 league with 30pts. Hearts retained the cup with 38 pts followed by Asante Kotoko with 33 pts. The exit of Blay Miezah from the football scene naturally affected the fortunes of Eleven Wise as they struggled to survive in top division football till the club was relegated at the end of the 1990/91 season alongside Bofoakwa Tano, Upper West Heroes and Foso Soccer Missionaries.

After a lot of up and downs Eleven Wise are back in the top division football. There will be more of this later. Let’s talk about the other legendary figure who breathed a lot of life into the national league- Herbert Mensah.

Herbert Mensah, a professional public relations man who did a marvellous job in promoting the South African digital satellite TV network M-Net in Ghana, burst onto the football scene in 1999 when he was made chairman of Kumasi Asante Kotoko. The club was gradually losing its trademark firepower and Herbert actually utilized his public relations skills to the full and exploited the popularity of Kotoko to useful advantage. He made the numerous supporters feel a sense of belonging and supporters realised the need to make contributions to the running of the club and especially the upkeep of the players who were dearly motivated.

Matches involving Kotoko consistently pulled heavy gates and on some occasions special cash donations dubbed “yibima” were collected in specially designed boxes. Despite all this the team was strangely not performing all that well. It is to the credit of the supporters that they sportingly accepted Herbert Mensah’s oft repeated explanation that he was on a team building exercise and continued to back him. Unfortunately somewhere along the line Herbert’s abrasive style of administration and his extrovert nature did not go down too well with officialdom and there were many instances of clash of personalities. To make matters worse a lot of matches involving Kotoko were surrounded in disputes and crowd violence and this was unfortunately blamed on Herbert’s leadership. It is sad that the worst football disaster in Ghana’s football history happened during Herbert’s tenure when 126 fans were killed in a stampede after a league match between Kotoko and Hearts at Accra Sports Stadium on May 9, 2001.

Wholly unconnected with this disaster, Herbert was removed as chairman of Kotoko in 2003 after he had narrowly missed the chance to win the Africa Cup Winners Cup in December 2002. A year after Herbert left office, Kotoko won the league under the new management of Sylvester Asare Owusu and many analysts were prepared to surmise that the new managers might have profited from the foundation laid by Herbert.

Perhaps eager to prove a point, Herbert started some romance with Kotoko’s city rivals King Faisal Babies but it was short lived. After some long spell, Herbert is back to club administration and now he is fully in charge of Obuasi Ashgold where he has started hitting the headlines again.

Herbert put a big price tag of $50,000 on Ashgold’s top striker Alex Asamoah, who wanted to transfer to Kotoko. In addition to the fee, Herbert wanted a friendly match between Ashgold and Kotoko with the Obuasi team taking a lion’s share of the gate takings. Kotoko paid the fee all right but when they appeared to be dragging their feet on the friendly match, Herbert justifiably raised an objection and lodged an official complaint to the Football Association. Kotoko had no option but quickly honour the match. That is Herbert for you.

This scenario expectedly created some tension around the second- week league fixture between Kotoko and Ashgold in Kumasi on Wednesday Dec 3 and the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi was filled to capacity. The teams did not disappoint the thick crowd. The controversial marksman Alex Asamoah stole the show by scoring the curtain raiser for Kotoko and creating the second before the recess.

Ashgold’s second half goal increased the tension but Kotoko lived up to expectation and got a third to win handsomely 3-1. The result of this match has set the stage for an intense rivalry between the two clubs .It is my considered opinion that if this healthy rivalry is well managed, the two clubs will stand to gain financially in the end.

Herbert may have his faults but he is a good organizer who can sniff money from afar. If the present management of Kotoko can sportingly forget about the bitter past and opt for a useful co-operation with Ashgold, the two teams will hit gold without necessarily going to the bowels of the earth at Obuasi.

I am convinced that with Herbert around, this year’s league will be colourful and exciting and it is my prayer that crowd violence will be a thing of the past.

Meanwhile as far as bragging rights are concerned, Asante Kotoko supporters have the upperhand over Ashgold but there should be no acrimony. Let the fun continue for a merry heart is good medicine with no bad effects.