All too soon this year’s edition of the Upper West Regional Division Two League in zone 3 will soon be over. With last round of matches to be played on 21/05/2022 the season can best be described as a “SEASON OF PROTEST.
The competition which kicked started in late February, 2022 is aimed at getting two representative clubs from the Tumu Zone at the regional middle leagues to be staged in Wa. The competition has so far produced 30 matches on a home and away bases.
The structure of the competition is commendable since is the first time post Covid-19 teams get to play in front of their home fans. This however came with challenges. There have been issues of hooliganism at some match venues which if not dealt with during off season will serve as recipe for chaos in the ensuing seasons.
The season under review has equally produced quite a number of red cards. Approximately, 4-5 red cards with an illegal fine of 200 Ghana cedis fine instead of 50 cedis slapped on clubs for each card.
In all honesty, the officiating officials have done a good job throughout the season. There’s however room for improvement for a few officials who sometimes bring the games to their knees. I take this opportunity to call on the leadership of RAG to do an introspection of the season and brace themselves for another epic campaign next season. Let me also caution club officials and supporters who think attacking officials will solve their woes to desist from such acts henceforth.
The kind of environment we find ourselves should tell us that, each one of us is making sacrifices for the future. Thus, the need to have cool heads before, during and after the games. More importantly, we’re brothers in one way or another.
There have been a decline in viewership of the competition this season. This might be because of the home and away bases but also due to the unsafe nature of our match venues. We can’t eat our cake and have it at the same time. We must eschew all tendencies of hooliganism at our match centers to be able to attract people to come watch.
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I will like to task management of clubs to take serious interest in their IT and media handles. There are litany of protest cases across Board. I dare say the highest number of cases so far in the history of the game in the Sissala area. At a point, one was certain that after each weekend matches, there were going to be protest cases from the matches played. About 90% of these cases are on mistakes resulting from player registration and a sign of our luck of understanding of the game. This should also be an indication to managers of clubs to get their own IT gurus before the next football registration season as well as learn the rules and regulations governing the competition.
Before match day 10, there’s approximately 6-7 protest cases from 4 different clubs out of a total of 6 clubs participating in this year’s competition. Only Kong Danger Stars and Soccer Babies did not make a protest case this season. Each protest case is accompanied with a fee of 500 Ghana cedis. The sad part about these protest cases is that, some of these clubs are able to get 500 cedis for the protest case but can’t afford to buy a pair of football boots at 200 cedis for a player. This is where I refer to us our lack of understanding of the game.
The football ecosystem is revolving hence the need for our clubs to catch up with the modern trends of doing things.
The game should be seen bringing us together and not tearing us apart.
As part of measures to reduce if not completely do away with some of the issues being discussed in this article, partners, stakeholders and Good Samaritans are welcome to partner expertise to organize at least a two or three days workshop for club managers and owners before the next football season. This will go a long way to improve on the quality of the games next season.
Clubs that featured in this year’s edition of the Upper West Regional Division Two league from the Sissala Zone included;
- Kong Danger Stars FC
- Soccer Babies FC
- Gandawii United FC
- Kpujinang FC
- Real 24 Hours FC &
- Kulfuo Eleven Killers FC.
SOURCE:SULEMANI RUFAI AGBONOR
