A board member of Accra Hearts of Oak, Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe has challenged the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to begin rethinking of a strategy that would ensure safety of players on the road.
He said the dire financial predicament of clubs have often forced them to crisscross the entire country on road to play football throughout the season when they could have gone by air depending on the distance.
Reacting to last Wednesday night’s accident involving Kumasi Asante Kotoko and which saw one person dead, the ex-GFA chairman told the Graphic Sports that the accident could have been avoided if there were more safer arrangements.
He said due to the schedule and the need to arrive at their next destination on time as well as get some rest before the next game, clubs were compelled to travel even at odd hours, saying such practices exposed players to danger and sometimes fatigue. As a result, he wants handlers of the premier clubs to collaborate with the FA to devise effective means of dealing with this.
Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe said the practice where players and officials travelled immediately after matches over long distances without allowing them to rest after a game, was not beneficial as it drained the players physically and psychologically, and ‘it has also become very dangerous to travel at night.’
The Hearts board member thus suggested that the teams who travel to the northern part of the country to play against clubs like Wa All Stars should try as much as possible to airlift their players because the distance was very far and it was unhealthy to subject players to the torture of having to sit for long hours just to go and play football.
This, he said, can be better if the financial situation was better as flying teams to go and honour matches brought addition cost.
“That is why the GFA must lead the re-thinking discourse to find solutions. It does not make sense to save cost and lose lives in this manner,” Dr Nyaho Tamakloe, who disclosed that Hearts often flew the team to Wa, stressed.
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