Whilst English football fans wait to witness the three upcoming fixtures between close rivals Manchester United and Chelsea, we in Ghana are privileged to have our local biggest football fixture on the calendar this weekend between Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak.

The two teams have between them won the 52 year old national league 41 times and they pull the largest crowd no matter their form. Indeed analysts believe it is the low output of the two crowd pulling clubs in recent times that has created the impression that the local league has ceased to be exciting.

Fact is, supporters of these two giant clubs are very selective in their choice of matches to witness and they only show up when their darling clubs are performing well. The good news is that after a rather lethargic start Kotoko and Hearts are gradually showing signs of recovery and that explains why last Sunday's match between Kotoko and Aduana Stars in Kumasi that Kotoko won 3-0 attracted such a big crowd.

The Accra match between Hearts and Liberty Professionals was also well attended. Hearts won 2-1. It is these respective victories for Kotoko and Hearts that have added more attraction to an already exciting annual ritual.

Newcomers Berekum Chelsea and Tarkwa- based Medeame may be collecting the points all right but Kotoko and Hearts have proved that they command the crowd that makes the game of football tick. It is rare to find both Kotoko and Hearts go so low together in a season like we have now.

Their respective 4th and 7th positions on the table put them way beyond the cup and what is left to fight for is the bragging rights- who is who; head to head? The records show Hearts 4-0 victory over Kotoko in Accra on March 15 2000 as their highest over their close rivals.

This cancelled Kotoko's 3-0 win over Hearts at their own home grounds on July 9 1980 but Kotoko fans maintain that Hearts can never win 3-0 in Kumasi. These are the kinds of statistics that make their fixture such topical.

The added attraction to this weekend's match is that, as if by design both teams have Serbian tacticians and fans would be eager to find out which of them can read the game better. It promises to be an interesting encounter but historians may like to recall that ten years ago (May 9 2001) a similar league match at the same venue between the two sides resulted in the worst football disaster in Ghana's history when 127 fans were killed in a stampede after the match that Hearts won 2-1.

It is hoped such a calamity would never happen in the country again especially at this time when natural disasters and self-imposed tragedies sparked by greedy politicians are threatening the existence of man in certain parts of the globe.

Let the game play as Didier Drogba has told his Ivorian politicians, I support him and say cheers to everybody and keep loving sports.