As Ghana’s champion club Kumasi Asante Kotoko return home from Morocco after their early exit in the Champions league, there is a strong agitation for the dismissal of Coach Opeele Boateng. Kotoko were eliminated by Khemisset of Morocco who qualified by the away goal after both sides had tied 3-3. Kotoko won 3-1 at home and lost 2-0 away.

There are reports that Kotoko were unfairly treated by the match officials as if they were expecting any red carpet reception in Morocco. A cross section of Kotoko supporters interviewed by this writer hold the view that the coach talks more than he can do to transform the club to its traditional winning ways.

The coach has a regular column in the Graphic Sports newspaper, Ghana’s flagship sports bi- weekly and critics fault him for not translating his high sounding theories into practice. One strong voice calling for coach Boateng’s removal is veteran Asante Kotoko follower Assad Mallah who has been a long serving director of the club. As far back as 1983, Assad who was special adviser to chairman Yaw Bawuah played a pivotal role in the club’s Africa Cup title triumph that year.

Assad is a strong believer in what he calls the “Kotoko tradition” and his suggestion is that when it comes to the selection of local coaches, Kotoko should pick someone who has once played for the club and therefore has the “Kotoko spirit in him”.

He mentioned coaches like Malik Jabir, Osei Kofi, Sunday Ibrahim and Abdul Razak who donned the red jerseys in their hey days and said these are the kind of people who can inject some sense of commitment in the players.

Assad conceded that the board room rift among the Kotoko management team does not bring good tidings and advised that the members should close their ranks to ensure a smooth administration. He appealed to the Asantehene who is chief life patron of the club, to appoint a board of directors as early as possible to supervise the work of the management team. “This arrangement worked perfectly in the past and this is the opportune time to get a Board on board”, Assad added.

Assad Mallah

The exit of Kotoko from the Champions league adds to the first round elimination of Heart of Lions in February by Etoile Filante of Burkina Faso on 4-3 aggregate. Lions lost 2-0 away and their 3-2 home win was not big enough to see them make any progress.

Incidentally the two Africa Cup failures Kotoko and Lions are chasing Accra Hearts of Oak for the league title hoping to get another chance to enter Africa next season. From the look of things it could be a wild chase because the gap between leaders Accra Hearts of Oak and the other title aspirants is quite huge.

At the end of the first round, Hearts top with 35 points followed by King Faisal 26, Heart of Lions 25 and Asante Kotoko 24.

The history of the Ghana league always favours the pace setters and even though football is a game of uncertainties it would take a lot of doing to unseat Accra Hearts of Oak from the top.

I wish the Ghana league could produce the sort of exciting finish being witnessed in the English Premiership. The sudden loss of form of the hitherto run away winners, Manchester United coupled with the sudden surge in form of Liverpool have conspired to produce an exhilarating finish.

After running riot banging in goals at will, Liverpool were nearly stopped in their tracks but they fought like potential champions for a late winner against Fulham. This victory was enough to put them on top of the table with two points ahead of Manchester United who had to honour their match against Aston Villa the following day. Honestly, the way the English fixtures are arranged at times baffles me. In my part of the world it would be difficult to convince the ordinary supporter why all the three title chasers played their matches the same day leaving the top of the table match for the following day. The myriad permutations of reasons for this act can be compiled into a book. It was a normality in England and so Manchester United fans raised no issues, they stormed Old Trafford all right and won the three points in a hard fight against Aston Villa.

Perhaps Ghana’s Premier League Board Chairman Welbeck Abrah Appiah would liaise with his English counterparts and come out with some innovations in the compilation of fixtures that would make the local league tick the more.

The first round did not record many nasty incidents probably because match officials are now more vigilant and probably spectators are beginning to understand the laws of the game. It looks like interest in the premier league is on the increase and let us look forward to an exciting second round.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.