Why angry Aduana Stars wants compensation from the GFA
Ghana Premier League club Aduana Stars is set to petition the Ghana Football Association (GFA) for compensation after a late decision to call off their 2020/21 league opener against Accra Hearts of Oak.
The former league winners were scheduled to host Accra Hearts of Oak at Dormaa on Saturday, but the FA informed the two clubs that the said match has been postponed until further notice, citing medical reasons.
The Communications Director of Aduana Stars, Evans Oppong has confirmed that his club is preparing a petition to the Ghana FA for compensation for calling off the game in the 11th hour.
The decision to postpone the game was taken following reports of a Coronavirus outbreak in the camp of their opponent, Accra Hearts of Oak.
Players and technical team members of Hearts of Oak have been directed to undergo further Covid-19 tests to ascertain their status before being cleared to begin their campaign.
However, Aduana Stars believe that the decision has caused them a huge financial loss. They are therefore demanding compensation from the FA.
“We will petition the FA on the expenses we’ve incurred on this match. We’ve camped our boys for five days for this match and they’ve been in camp till today (Friday). The boys have been in camp since Monday till today for our preparations; our field preparations and other unforeseen expenses we’ve incurred about this match have been easy,” Oppong said
“We sent one of our management members to Kumasi, went to two TV stations and radio stations to promote the match,” He told Soccer Page.
“We’ve also made jingles for all the radio stations to promote the match, so we’ve spent a lot on this match. So the expenses we’ve incurred on this game we will petition the FA and seek compensation. It is the FA that organizes the League so we will send the petition to the FA so that whoever has to pay the money to us does it,” he stressed.
“The rumour came out first and the FA should have investigated the stories you (ghanasportspage.com) published so that we can know the truth, but the FA failed to take that step, maybe if they’d followed it we wouldn’t have gone camping, so in this case, we will blame the FA for not acting very swiftly when the rumour came out.
“Hearts of Oak also didn’t help the situation because you know your situation so when the issue came you should be bold enough to let Ghanaians see that this is the situation. So for us, it is the FA that organizes the league so we will send our petition to them, outlining our expenses so that they pay us,” he deduced.
The league matches are currently being played with fans inside the stadium to cheer their various teams out, this follows a directive from the FA.
Legon Cities held
Elsewhere, the second fixture of the day between Legon Cities and Berekum Chelsea ended with both sharing a point after a 1-1 draw match.
Both teams were playing competitive football for the first time since March and they looked very eager to get going at the start of the match.
However, it was Berekum Chelsea that got into the lead after 22 minutes when a foul in the Legon Cities penalty area gave Stephen Amankona the chance to score from the spot.
Jonah Attuquaye of Legon Cities levelled the score 12 minutes after Berekum Chelsea broke the deadlock, also from the penalty spot following a push on Baba Mahama.