Veteran manager, Joseph Emmanuel Sarpong, has narrated the event that led to him slapping former Asante Kotoko coach Ernst Middendorp during a Ghana Premier League game between Asante Kotoko and Okwahu United at Nkawkaw Park in 2000.
JE Sarpong was handed a year ban by the Ghana Football Association's Disciplinary Committee after the incident.
According to Sarpong who was then in charge of Okwawu, the game was an intense fixture because Okwahu fans had vowed to beat Kotoko fans as revenge for an earlier attack.
JE Sarpong narrated in an interview with Ernest Brew Smith Show that his side took the lead 10 minutes to full-time through former Kotoko player, Ernest Boateng.
He said that during the final minutes, the ball went out for a throw-in which was to be effected by Kotoko player Emmanuel Nkrumah in front of the coaches' dugout.
The former Ebusua Dwarf trainer said he already had his hand instructing his player. While instructing his players, Nkrumah deliberately bumped him and went down in the process, creating a scene.
He said a few moments later, two Kotoko players — Joseph Hendricks and Godwin Ablordey — rushed on him(Sarpong) and accused him of attacking their teammate but the lineman who was close to the act cautioned the players because he knew Nkrumah had dramatised the attack.
"Middendorp stood up(from his bench)...pushed the match commissioner, late Opoku Fianko. Opoku Fianko was my Lecture at (University of Education) Winneba, so I was peeved. He was talking whiles coming 'who has beaten my player, you're are a foolish coach, stupid coach'. He was insulting me whiles coming and I stood there quietly with Abrah Appiah and Sekens(Okwawu manager). Abrah Appiah knew I would do something so he told me 'Yaw, please don't mind him'. Then, when he(Middendorp) got closer, he said 'you are a P...' I had slapped him already. I don't know the word he was going to say; I slapped him twice and his mouth started to bleed."
The Disciplinary Committee of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) later found Coach Sarpong guilty of violent conduct on the field of play and subsequently sanctioned him for a year.
