Feature: Asante Kotoko coach Mas-Ud Dramani must be sanctioned

Published on: 27 March 2014
Feature: Asante Kotoko coach Mas-Ud Dramani must be sanctioned
Asante Kotoko coach Mas-Ud Dramani

Kumasi-based Metro FM are making the case of why they believe Asante Kotoko coach Mas-Ud Dramani must be sanctioned for instructing Seidu Bancey to deliberately attract a yellow card to be suspended for the next match.

It’s very unfortunate that in our part of the World people sometimes make certain disgraceful comments and go scot free.

Didi Dramani the head coach of the league champions, Asante Kotoko per his status as a CAF instructor should have been cautious not to have washed his dirty clothes, in public by coming out that he influenced Seidu Bancey, the top scorer of the First Capital Plus Premier League to deliberately go for a yellow card in their 1-0 loss to Liberty Professionals on 16th March.

It is an open secret that some coaches do certain things behind the scenes to save their players for certain big and crucial games and they keep it to themselves until after their coaching career, but the league winning coach was proud to publicly brandish on Metro fm during a Kotoko biased show, ‘Kotoko Radio’ that “I told Seidu Bancey to deliberately go for a yellow card, so that he can be rested for some league games.” This comment is against the spirit of fair play and it is unethical in football terms.

The Kotoko head coach should know that Seidu Bancey could be rested for the Istanbul game without having deliberately gotten an infamous caution, which will now enter into the record books of Ghana football.

He should be able to resist pressure from the supporters of Kotoko, by explaining why a player is rested and not resorting to foul means which bring the name of the game into disrepute as a way to rest a player.

Someone can say that coaches all over the world resort to some of these wrong doings to rest their players and even the legendary coach Jose Mourinho once did a similar thing at Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League.

Of course Mourinho was involved in misconduct, but at the end UEFA the organizing body sanctioned Real Madrid and the other characters involved.

It happened in a UEFA Champions’ League group game against Ajax and Real Madrid having scored four had already qualified, then Mourinho told Dudek to tell Casillas to inform Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso who were on yellow cards that they should delay or do something that will call for another caution to deny them from playing against Auxerre in their last group game.

He knew the game against the French side wasn’t going to have any impact on their qualification from the group stage and it was therefore better for them to get another booking to make them ineligible for that game so that, they will start without any outstanding caution at the knockout stage.

The referee captured in his match report, the conversation that went on before the second yellow cards incident that sent the players off and Uefa after sitting on the case fined Real Madrid 100,000 euros, while Mourinho was fined 30, 000 euros with two matches touchline ban for the unsporting behavior, with the second suspended for three years.

The two players sent off, Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso were fined 20,000 euros plus a game ban in addition to their red cards suspension while Iker Casillas and Dudek received 10,000 and 5,000 euros fine respectively.

Arsène Wenger claimed that the actions damaged the game's image. "Yes, I think there should be sanctions. It's a pity to see that from a big club and when you see that it gives a bad image of our game – what we don't want."

Looking at the precedence in European soccer, I think the Ethics Committee should take inspiration from that to make sure some of these unsporting behaviors that mar the beauty of the game are put an end to.

The Committee has been up to task in dealing with some of the acts that bring the image of the game into disrepute.

For instance in 2012, the then Referees appointment Committee Chairman, Osei Tutu Agyemang made a statement after Kotoko supporters accused him of not being fair with them by stating that if there is any kind of favour he ought to give to a club it would be Kotoko because he is the Ashanti Region Football Association Chairman and the committee after sitting on the case ordered Osei Tutu to step aside.

Several other stakeholders such as J.E Sarpong, then the coach of Liberty Professionals, Abdul Salam Yakubu, the president of New Edubiase, Baah Nuako former Kotoko International Relations Officer and the president of GFA himself Kwesi Nyantakyi have all appeared before the Ethics Committee for various reasons.

As we say no one is above the law, so, if the president of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) could be called by the Ethics Committee, then the same thing should go to a coach whose conduct has brought the name of the game into disrepute.

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