It is for a good reason why the Ghana Football Association decided to disrupt the national football league fixtures for this weekend to enable Kumasi Asante Kotoko travel to Tanzania for a special 50^th independence anniversary match in Dar es Salaam against a combined team of Simba FC and Young Africans.

Ghana and Tanzania have a mutual football affinity dating back to the early sixties.When the former English colony of Tanganyika marked its first anniversary of independence in 1962 the Black Stars were around to mark the occasion.

The Stars beat the host nation 6-2 after recovering from a 2-0 deficit. Those were the days of Aggrey Fynn, Edward Acquah, Mohammed Salisu, Wilberforce Mfum and Co the Stars had earlier beaten Uganda 4-1 in another special match, 4-0 against Kenya and 12-0 against Nyasaland now Malawi.

The brilliant display by the Black Stars won the hearts of the East Africans and they clamoured to see more of Ghana football.The opportunity arose in 1969 when Asante Kotoko were paired against Tanzanian champion club, Young Africans, in the Africa cup for champion clubs.

It was at the quarter final stage and the aggregate scores were 2-2 with each side winning 2-0 at home. The rules of the competition at the time called for the toss of a coin and Kotoko won the toss to face Ismaili of Egypt in the semi-finals.

The Egyptians eliminated Kotoko on 4-3 aggregate. The first leg in Kumasi ended in 2-2 draw and Ismaili won the second leg 2-1.The 1970 Africa champion club series offered Tanzanians another opportunity to see Ghana’s champion club Asante Kotoko once more against Young Africans.

As if ordained it was also at the quarter final stage and it turned out to be a three match thriller.The first leg in Dar-es- Salaam on Sept 13 was 1-1 draw. The return match in Accra on Sept 27 was abandoned in the first half of extra time due to poor visibility with no goals scored.

The Accra stadium did not have floodlights at the time. A deciding match was therefore fixed at a neutral ground, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, on Nov 22 and Kotoko won 2-0 to reach the semi-finals where they eliminated old foes Ismailia (0-0, 2-0) to reach the final.

Kotoko became the first Ghanaian club to win won the cup by beating Englebert of Congo 3-2 on aggregate, 1-1 in Kumasi and 2-1 in Kinshasa.

The old rivalry between Young Africans and Asante Kotoko is what obviously motivated Tanzania to invite the Porcupine Warriors to help them mark their Golden Jubilee Independence anniversary and it is also in the spirit of African Unity that Ghana had to sacrifice its highly competitive national league programme to make the occasion grand.

Even though a large section of Kotoko supporters may be apprehensive of the trip for fear of player fatigue the technicians regard the club international fixture as a good exercise and coach Maxwell Konadu has promised to field his best available side for the match.

From all indications it would be quite an exciting match and gathering from discussions in the media, Ghanaian fans would also love to see such matches being arranged at home.The last visit of Nigeria’s Enugu Rangers for Hearts of Oak’s centenary celebrations did not get the right exposure.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.