Sports News of Saturday, 28 December 2019

Source: ghanasoccernet.com

Competitive football set to return to Ghana after 18-month suspension

Hearts of Oak VS Asante Kotoko Hearts of Oak VS Asante Kotoko

Ghana is expected to burst back to life this weekend when real domestic football gets underway with the start of the Ghana Premier League after an 18-month hiatus.

Nine matches of the top-flight league competition will be played right across the country on Sunday with 18 clubs in action following months in abeyance.

This will be followed next month with the start of the Division One League, the regional leagues, women's league and youth football.

The country's favourite football competition has been revived to start competitive football activities in Ghana following months of confusion and uncertainty.

This follows the election of Kurt Okraku two months ago as the new Ghana FA and has promised to revive the domestic scene with competitions.

After several months of back and forth, the opening round of matches will underway hopefully smoothly on Sunday when the matches start.

This brings football activities back alive after it was put on hold in June last year by the government, following the premiering of a documentary that exposed bribery and corruption in soccer administration in Ghana.

The Normalisation Committee, the temporary body put in charge of administration of game before the election of Okraku, announced the introduction of a new competition structure last December to bring back official domestic football activities in the country and also make clubs active.

The competition, which was planned to start in January, had to be postponed to the last days of March following a standoff between Premier League clubs and the NC before it was not played to the expected excitement.

The return of football has brought back excitement normally seen around league centers all over the West African country.

Winner of the Ghana Premier League will represent Ghana at the next Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League next year.

The champions of the MTN FA Cup, which is the knock-out competition, will be Ghana's representative in the CAF Confederation Cup.