Mr Ranford Antwi, the President of Sunyani-based Division Two side Suncity Royals Football Club called for investment into security infrastructure to tackle and bring under control the emerging hooliganism in the nation’s football.
He said urgent investment into development of modern CCTV cameras, metal detectors and other gadgets at the various stadia in the country would help to bring sanity in premier league and other local matches.
Mr Antwi was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) sport in Sunyani in the wake of the death of Francis Frimpong, a passionate supporter of the Kumasi Asante Kotoko FC.
The deceased was stabbed to death on Sunday February 2, 2025, when the Nsoatreman FC hosted the Kumasi Asante Kotoko FC at the match 19 of the Ghana Premier League at their home grounds at the Nsoatre Professor Amoah Koromansah II stadium.
So far, the police have arrested three suspects including Baffour-Awuah, the owner and financier of Nsoatreman FC and his bodyguard, Agyemang Duah Owusu, a police inspector and Joseph Kyeremeh.
They are standing trial at the Sunyani District Court ‘B’ presided over by Eric Daning.
Mr Antwi therefore called on the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to prioritise security “to avert escalating situations that threaten lives and properties at the various stadia and league centers.”
“No serious brand would want to be associated with violence infested football league and for that matter, until urgent steps are taken, with deliberate actions to improve security infrastructure across approved league centers in the country, the Ghana Premier League and football largely would remain unattractive,” he stated.
Mr Antwi underlined the GFA to embark on a holistic security infrastructural review to ascertain what would be best needed to arrest violent situations that have characterized Ghana’s football league.
“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”, he questioned, emphasizing that “if the right things are done, our league will rise to become one of the best in Africa”.
“However, 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 businessperson or brand to invest in our league,” he stated.
Mr Antwi cited that “CCTV cameras at the Sunyani Coronation Park that I engineered for its set up at the park exposed the perpetrators of the violent incident which happened during an encounter between Tano Bofoakwa FC and Nsoatreman FC in the last premier league season.”
“That led to home ban of the host of that match, Tano Bofoakwa FC,” he stated, saying “since the CCTV cameras were planted at some strategic locations at the coronation park, amazingly no such incident has taken place again.”
Mr Antwi expressed concern about what he described as “selective justice by the GFA and poor officiating” and attributed that to the “reasons why people take the laws into their own hands,” suggesting that “all matches should be video recorded.”
“In fact, without making our 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,” Mr Antwi added.
