The President of Sunyani-based Division Two side, Suncity Royals FC, Mr Ransford Antwi, has called on the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to urgently invest in Security infrastructure, such as CCTV and metal detectors among others.
This, according to him, would help avert escalating situations that threaten lives and properties during games.
He added that no serious brand would want to be associated with a violence infested football league and for that matter, until urgent steps are taken, with deliberate actions to improve upon security infrastructure across approved league centers in the country, Ghana Premier League and football largely would remain unattractive.
Mr Antwi believes that the GFA needs to embark on a holistic security infrastructural review to ascertain what would be best needed to arrest violent situations that have characterised Ghana’s football league.
He asked, “how many league centres do you see metal detectors mounted at the gates to prevent people from bringing in needless tools and weapons that can harm others?”
Speaking to some media personalities who visited his office, he emphasised that if the right things are done, our league would rise to become one of the best in Africa.
“But as it is now, our league has almost become a discouragement to even football loving people. How do you then have the audacity to convince a businessman or Brand to invest in such league”?
He shared an example of investing in CCTV cameras at the Sunyani Coronation Park, when BofoakwaTano participated last season and got involved in a violent incident at the Sunyani Coronation Park with Nsuatreman FC, which led to a home ban of the host.
He narrated that “after that bad incident, I, together with some friends acquired CCTV cameras and positioned them at some strategic locations at the Sunyani Coronation Park. Amazingly, since then no such incident has taken place again, because the people know that they are being monitored by surveillance cameras. When people know they’re being monitored, they behave well”, he said
He was quick to add that selective justice by the FA and poor officiating are some of the reasons why people take the laws into their own hands. Therefore, all matches should be video recorded, to say the least.
Without making the league attractive and incident-free, we may have to entirely forget about it and concentrate on something else.
As far as I am concerned, we need to have a holistic infrastructural review of our various league centres and ensure that all salient questions relating to security of footballers, spectators and officials are adequately addressed.
