The fact that Ghana’s football season seems not be clearly defined has been a big concern to the followers of the game in this soccer crazy country. The national league which essentially defines the season does not appear to follow any time table.

Matches are postponed with the flimsiest excuse. Eventually the essence of a league is lost. The ingredients that make the league a marathon contest are lost because of the intermittent breaks.

The 2010-2011 league that started on Sept 5 2010 officially ended on June 5 2011. One would have thought that an FA Cup final would follow and close the season to give the players some rest for the nest season as is the norm in the football world.

This did not happen .Instead, the organizers contrived to arrange a so called “determination match” between Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Tarkwa Medeama to decide which team occupies the second spot on the table.

Both teams had tied with the same number of points and instead of using superior goal difference, the back to back system was applied and it was realised that both teams were at par having won their respective home matches 1-0 apiece.

The second placed club qualifies to play in Africa this explains the decision to arrange the decider. The snag however was that there was a pending protest by Ashgold and the verdict could change the league table and make the so called decider unnecessary but the FA was adamant.

The match was played all right. Kotoko beat Medeama 2-1 to capture the second spot. A few days however Ashgold won an appeal against a ruling that had deprived them of six points and the y retuned to the second spot completely unchallenged.

And so it turned out that the Kotoko- Medeama match was an exercise in futility. Meanwhile, the FA Cup was also on hold pending a series of protests in the qualifying rounds. It so happened that at the time when  Nania FC had qualified for the final beating Berekum Chelsea on penalties, there was a problem with who had qualified to in the other group to meet Asante Kotoko in the semi- finals because quarter finalists Medeama and Sporting Mirren were still feuding .

In the end Medeama   had the upper hand in the confusion but were beaten by Wa All Stars in the quarter finals.  Kotoko beat All Stars on penalties in the semi finals to gain the right to be paired against division one Nania FC owned by the famous former international star Abedi Pele.

The  FA Cup final the first since 2001, takes place  at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra on Sunday July 24   This is the second time since 1978 that Asante Kotoko are playing  a lower division side in the FA Cup.  Kotoko whipped Gold Stars 7-0 in the 1978 FA Cup final at the same venue. I remember vividly how Kotoko so dominated the game that in the dying minutes, they decided to toy with their opponents by withdrawing front runners like Opoku Afriyie and Abdul Razak to play in the defence.

Can history repeat itself? Your guess is as good as mine.  Its 10 years since Ghana staged an FA Cup final and attendance should be great. It is the wish of this writer that after the FA Cup, the  Football Association, having just completed elections for executive positions, will draw a practicable programme for the next season bearing in mind that their English counterparts they are emulating, already have their 2011-2012 league fixtures out. Let’s learn good practices from the Europeans.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sport.