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11.12.2003 Sports News

Consider No Relegation For 2003 Premier League Clubs

11.12.2003 LISTEN
By Nartey, Ike

This years Kinapharma premier football league is over but the sad story is that the FA is yet to determine the final league table. Does this sound serious to anybody out there? Certainly yes and all the sporting world will be surprised to hear of this. It is unfortunate we find ourselves in such an ugly situation. I'm worried to hear such comedy of errors among civilised societies such as our. Gone are the days when most African soccer countries refer to Ghana as numero un. What have been the cause of such a mess? Are we refusing to learn from past occurrences or what?

The simple fact one can think of is that we lack vision and direction in the way of doing things in our football administration.

There may be many questions to ask than answers, but for now, may I enquire why the FA has not put up procedures to serve as guidelines for player registration as well as eligibility?

Who is to be blamed if a club suffers points deduction as a result of ineligibility of a player? Did the FA made the necessary checks on all players during the registration process at one time or the other? Why did the FA give preferential treatment to certain clubs by attending to certain protests and leaving others? The questions are endless and the simple fact is that the FA may not be able to answer!

What we should be thinking of is that almost all the relegation threatened clubs have suffered negatively to the advantage of others and the most appropriate way is to solve the issue in a way that may not harm any club. The FA need not be told that none of the participating clubs is more important than the others and they must all be treated equally. It has often been the order of the day where some so-called clubs are treated special, and until we shun all these negative practises, we will never go the way we have desired to achieve.

The way forward now is that the FA can not take any decision since things have gone out of hand and anything will certainly be to the disadvantage of other clubs. I believe the best it can do is to consider this year as no relegation for any of the premiership clubs so that two will be added from the division one qualifiers and the play off be decided on the last of the premiership and the third placed team in the division one.

I do not know the views of others but in times such as this, bold decision must be considered to save the situation. After all, if it were any of the so-called top clubs such as Kotoko or Hearts of oak, the FA would have manipulated things in their favour.

Act now so that the affected clubs can start with their recruitment exercise!!!

Ike Nartey Bogoso, W/R

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