Oseikrom as affectionately known is the Capital of Ashanti region of Ghana. It has been the soccer capital of the nation and the traditional home grounds of Ghana Black Stars since the Nkrumah era to the Mahama period.
The Baba Yara sports stadium has seen a plethora of matches in the history of the Black Stars than any Stadium. It has hosted the most weighted games of the Stars which has mostly ensured success.
The 40,000 capacity stadium has always been filled up charged with the soccer enthused of the people of the Garden city whenever the Black Stars are on. This is as aà result of the Soccer craze in the city. itââ¬â¢s not just a mere myth that it is said the Kumasi man always loves his Fufu, football and the female of his life. The FFF.
Unfortunately the last time the Black Stars played before the Kumasi fans at it favorite Baba Yara stadium was somewhere september 2014, Over a year now.
It was a game against the Cranes of Uganda in qualification series of the E.Guinea 2015 AFCON.
Prior to the match at the Baba Yara sports Stadium, the Kumasi fans had given an indication of hostile hospitality to the team amid the Brazil 2014 World cup debacle.
The management committee of the team in collaboration with the authorities even made attempts to make that encounter with the Ugandans free to the general public just to appease the fans. Gate fees was however drastically slashed down yet the aggrieved fans did not turn to the usual.
The few who attended the game between the cranes ofà Uganda nevertheless also expressed their resentments towards the team at the stadium.
After that shocking 1-1 drawn game with Ugandans, Kumasi is yet to host any Black Stars match. Subsequent matches were all moved from the Stars favorite grounds to cities like Accra and Tamale.
Yaw Boateng Gyan, a then Black Stars management committee memberà was reported to have said Kumasi is not the only city that can host Black Stars games thus a decision was taken.
ââ¬ÅOur policy is to rotate venues for all national team matches. Our original plan was to play the game against Uganda in Accra, but you know there are problems with the floodlights and other issues at the Accra Sports Stadium so we were forced to come to Kumasi,â⬠GFA Communications Director, Ibrahim Sannie Daara explained atà Sundayà morningââ¬â¢s press conference at Kumasi.
Today, we are now hearing there is a proposal put beforeà the management committee of the Black Stars to revert to Kumasi for Baba Yara to host the Black Stars second leg split game of the Russia 2018 qualification series between Comoros.
A simply question is if the football Association is embarking on what they described as a rotation policy, have they the policy makersà rotated the stars matches throughout the ten regions of Ghana to be turning back at Kumasi so soon?
Is the rotation policy only rotating around three cities? Thatââ¬â¢s Kumasi Accra andà Secondi.
Or is it a matter of falling on Kumasi at the needed periods? Certainly not, because that might trigger another explosion. In any lenses you look at it, that decision of moving matches from here and their last year wasnââ¬â¢t considered rigorously.
I maintain the issue which informed the so-called rotation policy could have been resolved maturely and moved on. No matter how you see the picture, Kumasi is always Kumasi. If the Stars are coming down, Kumasi will play it role accordingly.