As Berekum Arsenals move to pole position in Premiership.

Stubborn Berekum Arsenals have won all the two protests they filed against Obuasi Goldfields and B/A United respectively, for fielding unqualified players, and are therefore richer by six points, thereby moving to pole position in the 2003 Kinapharma Premier League.

In the case of Obuasi Goldfields, they had to pay dearly for gross negligence by fielding Yaw Owusu who had been red-carded in the last match of the 2002 premier league, and whose sanctions meant he was unqualified in the first league match against Arsenals. A statement from the GFA Secretariat signed by General Secretary Kofi Nsiah also fined the Obuasi-based club two (2) million cedis to serve as a deterrent to other clubs. The FA again, ordered Goldfields to foot the transportation of Arsenals for trekking to Obuasi to honour the match. As if that was not enough, three (3) points and three goals would be deducted from the points build up and this sends them to the 14th position on the league table with just four points.

And in a related development, the one-time Apostles of Power Soccer, B/A United also suffered the same fate as Goldfields, after using an unqualified player in the person of Daniel Bomfah in their third week premier league clash in Sunyani, in which United won by two goals to nil.Bomfah had travelled to India with an International Transfer Certificate, and returned with none, only to feature in the said match..

In an interview with SPACE SPORTS on phone from Accra, Mr.Takyi Arhin, Secretary of the Gunners expressed satisfaction with the FA ruling, though it took a longer time for the football controlling body to come out. He also urged football Administrators in Ghana to study the rules carefully because they will keep their eyes and ears wide open, and would not hesitate to seek the FA’s intervention in the interpretation of the laws of the game.