I still hold the view that the Ghana Premier League Board missed a fine opportunity last Sunday to stage a fitting coronation for the 2008-2009 marathon league. The planned ceremonial match this weekend between champions Accra Hearts of Oak and former city rivals Accra Great Olympics is to my mind a poor fixture to climax such an exciting league season.

Accra Great Olympics used to be called the “Wonder Club” for their heroics but are now struggling to regain top division status. With the rather colourless form of the new champions, it would be difficult to predict any attractive football which may call for gate fees to be slashed considerably to attract fans. In fact, ladies could have free entry as an added incentive to fill the stands. After all it is all going to be merry making to appease supporters of Hearts who had to sit on thorns throughout a turbulent second round of the league to see their darling club winning only one match in the last ten games.

Perhaps one reason, I guess that informed the decision of the PLB to invite Olympics to face Hearts is to remind the younger generation that Great Olympics were one of the eight founding teams of the national league in 1958 and in this 5Oth anniversary of the league the one time” Wonder Club” has every right to be part of the history.

And this reminds me of two other founding clubs from Sekondi namely Eleven Wise and Hasaacas who have been in and out of top division football since those glorious days when they ruled the famous Sekondi Gyandu Park. It was a tough struggle for survival in the just ended season and their fans are quite relieved that the modern Essipon Stadium will continue to be busy on Sundays with premier division football.

May I at this juncture recall the demise of three other founding clubs of the national league in addition to Great Olympics who are struggling for national recognition:- Kumasi Cornerstone, Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs and Cape Coast Venomous Vipers. These clubs together with Accra Hearts of Oak, Kumasi Asante Kotoko, Sekondi Hasaacas and Sekondi Eleven Wise were the pioneers of the league that saw Hearts becoming the first champions with 21 points beating Cornerstone by one point.

It is not clear whether the Football Association would mark the 50th anniversary with any pomp and pageantry because of the crowded international matches involving the Black Stars. But I think it would not be out of place to arrange something symbolic to coincide with Ghana’s anticipated qualification for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. It should not be anything grandiose but the need to mark such occasions is to remind the present generation the world did not begin only yesterday.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.

July 22nd 1995: Colombia beat USA 4-1 to win third place in the COPA America.