By Raymond Yeboah, Ark Radio, Sunyani

Tano Bofoakwa against BA United is a Brong Ahafo regional derby that is so intense, it may sometimes boil over than any other fixture in Ghanaian football. When these two former Premier League sides but now both in Division One meet, I can assure you it is more intensive than Kotoko versus Hearts.

Classified as class A match, no rivalry game is so intense than a clash between these two. That is why it is always important for the Division One League Board to make serious arrangement for security in order to avoid any hooligans’ attacks and chaos.

But it is sad that no such arrangements are made by league authorities, which in turn tend to cause mayhem. The reason why many Ghanaian supporters have stopped patronising our game of football is this kind of improper security arrangement and hooliganism. Sunyani Coronation Park which hosted BA United against Bofoakwa in a Division One League match last Sunday witnessed a horror scene that is very bad.

Both set of supporters of the two clubs accused the referee of biased officiating hence resulting in exchange of stone throwing. It was a very chaotic situation that saw football turned to ‘foot-war’. Bofo eventually won the game 1-0 but not before an assistant referee was hit by a stone, interfering play with stoppages.

What I have noticed as the reason for which our league and match venues tend to witness hooliganism is because many of the policemen assigned the duty of preventing these incidents turn out to be spectators themselves, as was the case in Sunyani. It happened that instead of concentrating on their job of maintaining security at the Coronation Park, many of these Policemen were actually arguing on the Kotoko versus Hearts Premier League game that was simultaneously going on at Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi.

That is why I think it is necessary for the GFA to make sure that Policemen assigned to matches at our various stadia take cue from their European counterparts on how to successfully perform their duties.

Division One League Board Chairman, Ntow Fianko is from the Brong Ahafo Region and he knows how tense matches between BA United and Bofoakwa are. Mr. Fianko should have collaborated with the Referees Appointment Committee for the designation of an experienced referee and a sound security arrangement for the match.

To promote peace at our football league centres, the GFA must blend Police with Military for security duty. These securitymen must also be made to understand that they must turn their back to the pitch and face the crowd whenever they are on stadium duty.

BA Stars should take some lessons from their predecessors who no dwell in Division 2 about the negative effects of the punishments they suffered for once hurling stones at Accra Hearts of Oak.