Controversy Over Kotoko's 22nd Title
Daniel Nii Adjei - played a key role in Kotoko's league victory Sixty years after its inception, the Ghanaian elite football league has been rocked by controversy over the record of winners of the competition.
It has taken Kotoko’s win of this year’s edition to stir up the hornet’s nest and unveil what appeared a defect in the compilation of the records of the competition which is set to make Kumasi Asante Kotoko victims of history.
The matter appears so delicate that the Professional League Board, whose words could resolve the jigsaw puzzle, seems to be shying away from the controversy as it is set to introduce a new line of argument into the fray.
According to PLB sources, the board has settled on the records of winners since the 1993-1994 season when the first constituted professional body was given the mandate to run the Premier League. Since then, it has successfully organised 18 league
competitions with Accra Hearts of Oak winning it nine times, Kumasi Asante Kotoko four times, Ashantigold three times with Aduana and Berekum Chelsea each winning it once. This is the record which the board has settled on.
But the record of winners dating back to the amateur days puts Kotoko ahead of all clubs with 22 wins pending their coronation as champions this season. Their closest rivals, Hearts of Oak have 20 wins to their credit.
However, historians of the league are disputing the fourth win of the title by Kotoko, claiming that those who chronicled the history of the league mistakenly counted the Porcupine Warriors twice in the 1967/68 season.
Indeed, available records indicate that the 1967 league season was embroiled in controversy which sparked a series of pullouts but after the first round, Kotoko led the table. After a long break, the second round of the competition resumed and Kotoko eventually won the title.