I cannot hide my excitement about the immense progress of Ghana’s Premier football league. The administration has improved tremendously.

Matches are played on schedule, referees’ reports are dealt with swiftly and most importantly standard of play is so appreciably high that you can pick at least six out of the 16 contestants as potential champions.

Kumasi Asante Kotoko, Wa All Stars, Accra Hearts of Oak, Berekum Chelsea, Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs and Edubiase FC are all gunning for the top prize, no wonder many football analysts have already tagged the 2011-2012 season as the best in recent times.

Many critical observers believe a more concerted effort from the media would help bring fans to the various league centres like we have in most football loving countries.

It is generally accepted that football, and for that matter sports in general, thrive on publicity.  The more the games and its actors get public exposure, the more fans are motivated to throng the venues where the action is. Technology has made television the number one promoter of sports worldwide.

In my country Ghana, the privately run Metro TV has become the top sports station beaming live matches from the remotest league centre a feat  considered  impossible not too long ago.

This has gone on well with the football public; it is therefore unfortunate that Metro TV has threatened to stop the coverage of matches involving Asante Kotoko following a recent unfortunate heckling of two commentators of the station at the end of a league match between Kotoko and Berekum Chelsea at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi.

Apparently some Kotoko supporters did not take kindly to the scathing remarks by the two TV commentators, Chris Opoku and Nana Agyemang who vehemently disputed the penalty award that won the day for Kotoko.

There is a huge debate in Ghana football circles as to the extent commentators could go in their line of duty.  Comparison is being made of the Barclays Premiership commentators who hardly take any such strong stand in controversial issues and leave the verdict to viewers.

I am not prepared to make take sides here but only interested to seeing sanity prevail so that Ghanaians could enjoy their local league on TV. Maybe we all have to agree controversial decisions by referees will continue to be part of the game.

You have them even in the best league in England. Recently when a penalty was awarded against Manchester United in their match against Newcastle, Alex Ferguson said the referee was the only person at Old Trafford who saw the penalty.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp after the team’s recent loss to Stoke City said the referee missed two handballs, wrongly disallowed Adebayor’s goal for offside  and hastily gave  one of his players two yellow cards.

Arsene Wenger after Arsenal’s 1-0  defeat to Manchester City thought the referee  made a strange interpretation of the offside rule by disallowing  what he considered Arsenal’s perfect equalizer.

These things do happen and the fear is that strong views on games by media correspondent s may compromise their expected neutrality.This is by the way.

My excitement is the way the Ghana league is gradually improving and bearing some similarities with the Barclays league in England.

Asante Kotoko, top of the table are targeting a record 22nd title and second placed Manchester United are in pursuit of a record 20th title. Both teams are facing strong challenges and the coming weeks will give a fair idea how the title race would shape up.

The Ghana league is taking a short break for Xmas and will resume second week in January 2012. It is however a busy time for the English who rightly believe that the yuletide is a good time to enjoy football. What do you think?

The resumption of the Ghana league will coincide with the eve of the African Cup of Nations in Gabon/Equatorial Guinea. It will be interesting to see how the league will compete for attention with the continental tournament.

Cheers everyone and keep loving sports.