Hindsight: Moral lessons from a brothel

Match week 21 of the Ghana Premier League was one to forget for Accra Hearts of Oak.

They let slip a chance to go top of the league after a surprise 1-0 home loss to a rather underwhelming Dreams F.C.

For context, Dreams managed only one win in their first ten league matches of the season and have five in twenty-one wins in total.

Want more? Hearts of Oak have won the same number of matches in their last seven league games – 5, as Dreams have won in the entire season.

That is the team that ended Hearts of Oak’s seven-game unbeaten run.
If their performance was not bad enough – and Hearts were really bad on Saturday, the Phobians also suffered the misfortune of being charged for not causing their coach to attend the mandatory post-match conference.

Aboubakar Ouattara, for whatever reason, chose not to attend the post-match conference. When journalists asked, there was no one available to provide any official explanation for the coach’s inability to attend the presser.

Hearts coach Aboubakar Ouattara

In truth, Ouattara’s conduct ought to be checked. This is not the first time he has refused to attend the mandatory presser.

After a similar defeat last season, journalists at the Accra Sports Stadium were told that the coach was ‘busy’ talking to his players.

That kind of behavior ought to have been checked by now.

If Hearts had done their job, they would not have taken moral lessons from the brothel of an institution like the Ghana Football Association (GFA).

The GFA’s statement that charged Hearts and Ouattara, said the club had by its conduct, ‘brought the name of the game into disrepute.’

That is strange because the very match in question, along with one other, was scheduled to be broadcast on four television channels; AFA Sports, Metro TV, NET 2 TV, and Original TV.

#GPLwk24 Live Matches:

Watch live on AFA Sports Channel, Metro TV, Net 2, Original TV, or stream online through the @ghanafaofficial App! pic.twitter.com/o3l9cnTFsC

— Ghana Premier League (@GhanaLeague) March 14, 2025

Yet, without the courtesy of a notice announcing any changes to the broadcast schedule for the week, the GFA and its broadcast partners decided that the meeting between defending champions Samartex 1996 and league leaders Asante Kotoko, would no longer be on TV.

An hour later, the match between Hearts of Oak and Dreams F.C. also suffered the same fate.

An official of Hearts of Oak who spoke to JoySports anonymously said that AFA Sports had informed them that the GFA instructed them not to broadcast the match a few hours before kick-off.

When JoySports contacted a member of the AFA crew, their official line was that the games could not be televised due to a ‘technical challenge’.

True or not, it is simply unacceptable for the GFA to simply get on with life without so much as a statement to announce that the games would no longer be on TV as earlier announced.

Just like Ouattara, this is not the first time the GFA has made changes to the broadcast schedule without prior notice to fans.

It happened in the first round and has happened on many other occasions.

By what right, does the GFA act without principle or respect for its members, but be the one to hold others accountable?

How does the GFA not see that these things undermine its authority and integrity? If it can break its agreement with clubs and fans, how does it retain its authority to sanction others for the same?

Why should Hearts of Oak pay a dime to the GFA when the football governing body has not accounted for the matches that were supposed to be on TV?

The same principles of fairness and justice that give authority to the GFA are binding on the governing body, willy-nilly.

That is why it cannot be biased or arbitrary in applying regulations and is not allowed to act without values.

In January, the GFA charged Medeama S.C. for allegedly preventing the broadcast of their match against Asante Kotoko.

The charge was announced exactly a month after the GFA had cancelled the broadcast of matches that had been previously advertised.

If the GFA can cancel scheduled broadcasts at will without prior notice to clubs or fans, why should it be the entity to punish others for similar infractions?