Sports

‘We can’t wait for night football’

The ice holding Ghana’s Premier League (GPL) is expected to be thawed out with a Friday night football on December 27, later this month.

Many Ghanaians have been expectant to have their football back.

The GPL has been on hold since June last year when the famous investigative documentary by Anas Aremeyaw Anas exposed some scandals in the Ghanaian game.

However, top sources within the new Kurt Okraku-led GFA say the league will resume on Friday, December 27, with night football – information that appears to have gone down well with local supporters.

Premier League chiefs, the Times Sports learnt, have looked to Friday night to protect lower league attendances in the event that the game clashes with some compelling fixtures across Europe, especially the English Premier League.

Scores of fans have been reacting positively to news on the Friday night game.

A dyed-in-the-wool follower of the local league, Maxwell Awuni, say the move by the FA was a step in the right direction.

“Certainly, when you have a Manchester United v Chelsea clash on a Sunday, for instance, you need no one to tell you it would affect any big domestic fixture slated for the same day. So, naturally, it would only make sense to reschedule that game to Friday.

“In the same vein, it would not be prudent to put a Kotoko-Hearts nerve-jangler on Friday night when it clashes with a huge game in Europe on same night,” he said.

Ardent follower of Kumasi Asante Kotoko, Nana Ama Brempong, told the Times Sports yesterday that she would love to see Friday night football, irrespective of what happens in the European leagues.

“I’m not even a fan of foreign football, so I wouldn’t be bothered at all as to whether Chelsea, United, Liverpool, Barcelona or Real Madrid is playing. I love Ghana football and that’s all.

“Truth is that, we in Kumasi cannot wait for Friday night football because it will be full of fun,” she stated.

However, according to the FA source, the leadership of the GFA are consulting supporters’ groups as well as consumers to look at the way forward in this regard, ahead of the start of the league.

This year’s league will for the first time in more than a decade see the return of an 18-club topflight, with the admission of Accra Great Olympics and King Faisal.

Great Olympics and King Faisal were included in the season’s league after years of legal tussle.

The decision was arrived at after delegates snugly voted in favour of a proposal to increase the teams in the GPL to 18. Both sides were relegated in different seasons but took to the ordinary law courts to have the status restored.

BY JOHN VIGAH

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