Ghana’s premier league football competition has had a rather bad reputation for suspected matches of convenience being played or simply put "fixed matches" towards the end when the relegation axe is about to fall on some clubs. This is a very controversial issue because it is not easy detecting a fixed match unless you have ridiculous scorelines in double figures like it happened two decades ago involving Accra Man U, B.A.United , Hassacas and Eleven Wise.

So cleverly what some clubs in safe positions on the table did was to refuse to honour certain fixtures and concede defeat by default. Luckily the Football Association quickly found an antidote by deducting three points from the build up of the offending clubs and the practice stopped.

Admittedly not much has been talked about fixed matches in the premier league for a long time and the reason may be that both top and bottom ranks had been clear cut all the time. May be this topic has cropped up because of Kotoko’s surprise 2-0 loss to “traditional brothers” Olympics in Accra on Wednesday. But as I said it is not easy to detect a so called fixed match and so the murmurs in football circles must stop. The results should be accepted as one of the surprises accustomed to football. This league has travelled quite a distance from Dec 2007 and it is exciting to see such a hectic dog fight finish.

Whilst the top is almost settled with Kotoko in an unassailable lead with a 10 point gap and only four matches to go the bottom is choked .In fact apart from Accra Great Olympics who may be described as relegation certainties, trailing with 23 points there are as many as six more clubs in the "danger zone"

Real Tamale United with 32 pts; Swedru All Blacks 31 pts; Tema Youth 30pts;Tema Real Sportive 30pts;Sekondi Hassacas 28pts; Zaytuna 27 pts are all fighting for survival and their remaining four fixtures would definitely excite emotions.

And the fixtures are quite exciting too. Real Tamale United have a home match this weekend against Great Olympics, then away to Real Sportive at Tema, home again to Wa All Stars then finally away in Accra to Zaytuna. What a task.

All Blacks will face Kessben away this weekend; play host to Zaytuna; travel to Accra to face Liberty Professionals and welcome potential champions Asante Kotoko to Swedru in the last match. It is tough.

Tema Youth meet Liberty Professionals at home this weekend;face King Faisal in Kumasi, then host Sekondi Hassacas before meeting Ashgold at Obuasi in the last match a fantastic line up..

Tema Real Sportive travel to Kumasi this weekend to face Asante Kotoko, host Real Tamale United, clash with Berekum Arsenal at Berekum before finally hosting Kpandu Heart of Lions at Tema. What a cracker

.Sekondi Hassacas, two steps from the bottom, will meet Heart of Lions at Kpandu this weekend; host Accra Hearts of Oak the following week then travel to Tema to meet Tema Youth before finally hosting Kessben in Sekondi. What a mountain to climb.

Zaytuna ,last but one from the bottom will host Wa All Stars this weekend, then travel to Swedru to meet All Blacks They have another away encounter against Kumasi Asante Kotoko before hosting Real Tamale United .in Accra. This is not for the faint herted.

Bottom club Accra Great Olympics will be away to Real tamale United this weekend before hosting Berekum Arsenals. There is another away match against Heart of Lions at Kpandu before facing city rivals Accra hearts of Oak in a local derby. A real do or die affair.

It is apparent that all these seven relegation threatened clubs have tricky fixtures to end the season and football fans would be anxious to look out for any foul tactics that may put the name of the game into disrepute. The Professional league Board must really be on the look out for any unprofessional conduct by any club. The media must also open their eyes but the caution is that so called fixed matches are not easy to detect and it would be dangerous to make unfair assumptions.