The chairman of the Ghana Premier League Board("PLB"), Welbeck Abra-Appiah, says he expects a crowded league programme next season in view of the Africa Cup of Nations and the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. “We would have to complete the league before the World Cup begins”, he told a radio interviewer in Accra moments after the last matches of the 2008-2009 league on Sunday that saw Accra Hearts of Oak winning their 20th league title with an expected 2-0 win over bottom club Sporting Mirren at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in Accra.

“There will be a considerable number of mid-week matches and the Ghanaian football public must be able to adopt matches being played during the weekend like the European league”, he said. Abrah-Appiah was happy to see an exciting end to the league that threatened to be a boring one horse event after the first round. He was particularly thrilled at the keen competition for survival by the bottom clubs and wished those who will face relegation better luck next time.

Mr Welbeck Abra-Appiah
(Chairman of the Premier League Board)

The snag however is that, the relegation exercise is not complete following a petition by Tema Youth who have been deducted six points for allegedly fielding an unqualified player in some of their matches. This deduction of points has put the Tema team right in the relegation zone and the standings will change drastically if they get their points back.

On the other hand, there is no question about life at the top. Hearts 52, Kotoko 49, Lions 47, and King Faisal 46 are undoubtedly the big four in Ghana football at the moment.

In fact, after the penultimate round matches, it became apparent that Accra Hearts of Oak would snatch the cup. The valuable away point they had from Arsenal at Berekum whilst Asante Kotoko dropped three points against Ashgold at Obuasi gave Hearts a golden one point advantage at the top and it would have been one of the greatest upsets in Ghanaian football history if relegation certainties Sporting Mirren had beaten Hearts in the final at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra of all places.

I think the Premier League Board would have added more glamour to the end of the league ceremony if it had summoned courage to prepare for the coronation of the champions.

I am sure even the most fanatic supporter of Kotoko knew the league title had slipped through their hands and it would be unthinkable to fathom that Hearts would lose such a crucial match to a team that had virtually nothing at stake except perhaps for record purposes. And this hardly happens in Ghana’s football history.

Next time round, let’s have the courage to plan ahead and finish everything connected with the league on the final day to make the occasion more colourful and memorable. It is a regular practice in the advanced football nations. In the just ended English premiership season, everything had been lined up to present Manchester United with the cup even though United had to beat Hull City on the final day to make victory certain.

In the 1999 European Champions league final I saw on TV when the cup was being decorated with Bayern Munich colours five minutes to the end of the game when they were leading Manchester United 1-0 but when the tide suddenly changed in favour of Manchester, the colours were also changed to the famous red colours of United. No problem at all.

I pity our football authorities. There are so many arm chair critics in our part of the world who will hit at any innovation by the managers of our football that in the words of PLB Chairman Abrah-Appiah “we don’t want to incur the wrath of any club so we will suspend all formalities till a week after the dust would have settled.”

You can’t blame the chairman. Suspicion and mistrust is fast becoming a culture and so everybody wants to play safe. I was telling a friend the other day when I read a report of former US President George Bush vomiting after dinner on one his trips to the Far East.

It did not appear to be a big deal in the US. If it had happened in our part of the world, a whole committee would have been set up to probe the political background of the chefs who had “conspired to embarrass the government by putting strange ingredients in his food.”

Sorry for the digression. We are talking football and it is a pleasure that the Premier League of Ghana has come to a successful end, thanks to the antics of the perennial winners Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko who between them have won the 50 year old competition 41 times; Kotoko 21 and Hearts 20. The two clubs stole the show. Hearts set a terrific pace in the first round leading Kotoko by 17 points but Kotoko fought back gamely in the second round as Hearts slumped terribly.

Kotoko actually took the lead by superior goals build up with two matches to go. But Hearts had the last laugh by winning four points as against one by Kotoko in the last two games to be crowned champions on the 50th anniversary of the league. The sages say he who laughs last laughs best so kudos to Hearts but Kotoko coach Herbert Addo and his new management team deserves tons of praise for transforming the team into such a formidable force within a short of period when the going was embarrassingly tough for the twice Africa champions.

To Accra Hearts of Oak, some say it is a fitting tribute to the fighting spirit of the oldest existing football club in the country- born in 1911 with an inspiring motto of NEVER SAY DIE, the first to win the maiden edition of the league in 1958. The sporting scene is full of excitement, so cheers everybody and keep loving sports.