2004 League Programme Out

The Executive Council of Ghana Football Association has proposed 2nd May 2004 as the date for the commencement of the 2004 Premier league.

The Executive Council, GHALCA and PLB have also unanimously agreed to put the sixteen clubs into two groups for the 2004 league as a result of the tight nature of the soccer calendar.

Zone A comprises Kotoko, King Faisal, Goldfields, Arsenal, B.A. United, Tano Bofoakwa, Real Tamale United and Okwawu United.

Zone B is made up of Hearts, Liberty Professionals, Great Olympics, Power F.C., Heart of Lions, Real Sportive, Feyrnood Soccer Academy and Sekondi Hassacas.

According to a source close to the corridors of Executive Council, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd week matches would be honoured on 2nd 5th and 9th May respectively. The months of June, July and August would not see much action in the league.

In the month of June for instance, Black Stars have two crucial world Cup qualifiers against Burkina Faso and South Africa. In July, the U~20 team would play Uganda and Gabon in World Youth Championship qualifiers. The month of August is no exception as the U~23, Black Meteors would be in Athens for the Olympics games.

According to the Council, if the programme is religiously followed, the league would be completed on 22nd November, 2004, eight days before CAF's deadline for submission of teams for CAF competitions.

The source also disclosed modalities for determining the winner and relegation. The winners of the groups would engage in a play-off on home and away basis to determine the over-all winner. The last teams would be relegated to division one whilst the seventh placed teams engage in a deciding match to determine the team that locks horns with the third placed team in the Division one middle league.

Executive Council is expected to submit the proposed programme to Congress for approval on 15th April, 2004. A member of the Council who spoke to Kwabena Kyere Stugard of SPACE FM on condition of anonymity expressed the hope that the proposed programme would be endorsed since all the stakeholders were involved in the decision.

Meanwhile the Executive Council is expected to go to polls on 14th April, 2004 to decide who becomes GFA chairman. Dr. Kofi Amoah and Dr. Nyaho Tamakloe are in contention for the hot seat.