Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Youth and Sports, Alex Kofi Agyekum has observed that football fans and referees are not ready to change their behavior during football matches, despite the tragic incident which claimed many lives during the May 9 stadium disaster.
Football rivalry between fans of Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak fueled by poor officiating resulted in a commotion. The firing of teargas by the police rather led to a stampede at the Accra Sports Stadium.
The incident claimed over 126 lives, planting a dent in the history of Ghana’s football.
Remembering the incident on 3FM’s Sunrise with Winston Amoah last week Thursday, Mr. Agyekum said the underlying indiscipline that caused the May 9 disaster continues to persist in Ghana’s football.
“In terms of refereeing, in terms of fans behavior, in terms of attitude of clubs, I don’t think anything has been learnt which we can say as at today that yes, because of this, 18 years ago, this is how far we’ve gone,” he said.
He explained that as part of efforts to improve the integrity of the game, football authorities have put measures in place in terms of infrastructure such as railing to separate fans from accessing the pitch as well as training and workshop sessions for referees.
Mr. Agyekum lamented that, “After organizing the workshop, giving them tutorials as to what to do, it comes to the application. That is where we have the difficulty. People are not ready to change.”
By Paul Selorm Agbo| 3news.com|Ghana