Ghana Premier League debutants Elmina Sharks have called on all entities responsible for the development of Ghana football to unite and bring sanity into the league that once ruled the nation.
Earlier this week, the bankroller and founder of Elmina Sharks, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, wrote a piece on Facebook with regards to football corruption and the menace it has brought to the Ghana Premier League.
Many club officials shared their views in different proportions on Dr. Nduoms piece.
However the cape coast based club has released a statement to share more light on Dr. Nduom’s post claiming that sanity has to be restored into the Ghana Premier League and avoid making baseless arguments without evidence.
Read the statement from Elmina Sharks below:
DR. PAPA KWESI NDUOM’S FACEBOOK POST AND MATTERS ARISING
We have in the past few days witnessed with shock, the backlash against club President of Elmina Sharks FC, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom.
We are particularly worried for the fact that, there appears to be an attempt to shelve the important message the post carries but rather, resort to baseless equalization, accusations and counter-accusations.
The commentaries purported to be a reaction to the courageous posts of Dr. Nduom have failed to deny any of the factors enumerated as haven been militating against the progress of Ghana football but rather resorted to not only vilify but also besmirch the image of the club president and the Club.
We expected the public to analyze and subject the issues and concerns raised to critical scrutiny in order to authenticate its validity or otherwise, but not to attack the person of Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom and the integrity of Elmina Sharks FC and take solace in cheap equalization.
It is interesting to note that the two FA officials (Albert Commey, Executive Committee Member and Takyi Arhin, Division One League Board Member) who have reacted to the Facebook post by Dr. Nduom appear to confirm the claims made. None of them was able to deny any of the claims made but only tried to make nonsense of the claim by claiming Elmina Sharks FC has engaged in corrupt acts too.
We are disappointed in the fact that, these officials of the FA, in their commentaries claim they knew Sharks had been engaging in corrupt acts yesteryears, yet, couldn’t take action nor raise any alarm, but only found their voices when the club President raised those critical issues.
It is obvious that they only sought to take shelter in the archaic propagandists’ tactics of ‘kill the messenger and ignore the message’.
We are by this release backing all the claims made by the President on his Facebook page.
It is our belief that as a franchise, the Ghana Premier League is not sacrosanct to the happenings in world football, and as such a collective effort is needed in making it an enviable brand across the continent and the world.
For this, we are not only resurrecting and standing by the claims he (Dr. Nduom) made but also tasking the various stakeholders to appreciate the ills in our game and to take frantic efforts to tackle them.
As a club, we pledge our support towards any effort aimed at sanitizing the system and installing integrity in the game. We are of the view that to successfully fight the menace, all hands must be on deck and as such, there shouldn’t be an attempt to gag people or suppress the views of people, especially, when it aims at uncovering and addressing the ills in the industry.
It is in this spirit that we pledge to cooperate and support all the relevant agencies that have the mandate to help rid the system of manipulation.
We therefore call on all well-meaning Ghanaians to take interest and to also contribute their quota in any means possible to bring back sanity and to restore confidence in the industry.
Long live Elmina Sharks FC
Long Live Ghana Football
Long live Ghana
………………..signed………………
George Wiredu
General Manager
The cape coast club wants officials to restore sanity into the Ghana Premier League