Feature: When soccer and Ghana met - the changing history of Ghana football

Published on: 11 December 2017
Feature: When soccer and Ghana met - the changing history of Ghana football
Black Stars, Ghana national football team

The game of soccer has been around for an exceptionally long time now. In fact, according to FIFA, the earliest form of this game was played in China and went by the name of cuju. Players of cuju could use any body part – except for the hands – to knock a ball through an opening into a net.

It was exceptionally similar to modern day football. And while this occurred back during the Han Dynasty (206BC to 220AD), today’s version of soccer didn’t come about until many years later.

As far as soccer in Ghana goes, this was introduced to the country by Great Britain. Ghana was previously a British colony, and the game was brought to the country in 1882.

This was when the first organised matches took place. As the popularity of the game began increasing, the first official Ghanaian soccer club was formed.

The team was known as Cape Coast Excelsior, and it was in 1920 that the first formal competition took place.

In 1957, Ghana became the very first African country to gain independence, and the first President of the country, Kwame Nkrumah utilised soccer as a means of preaching about African pride. He told the Ghanaians and Africa that they did not need to bow down before anyone, especially imperialists.

However, this all came to an end in 1966 when Nkrumah’s government fell. At the same time, his hold over soccer also fell. It was in the late 1970s that football players from the country began migrating to European clubs, due to unusable fields and unstable infrastructures within.

Today’s Situation

As it stands today, the Ghanaian national team is doing fairly well within the sport. Local leagues are also getting their dues, attracting various sponsors. It’s also said that players from Ghana earn great salaries, according to national standards.

That being said, corruption still lingers within the country and the sport, especially when it comes to the northern part of Ghana. Many players are still focusing more on transferring to Europe in a bid to escape such.

This also translates directly to the sports betting world as well. Many Ghanaians enjoy watching and participating in soccer, and you’ll find that there are quite a few physical establishments for placing sports wagers in the country.

Sports betting is entirely legal there, just like all other forms of gambling. The venues are all regulated by the Ghana Gaming Commission, providing citizens with the opportunity to place wagers on both local and international events.

For many years, sports betting has been available both offline and online. However, it’s only in recent years that its popularity has grown.

This is quite possibly to do with the fact that more people are able to afford internet connections, computers and mobile devices, and have the spare money to be able to place sports bets.

And again, this translates to all types of gambling in Ghana. Online casino gambling is perfectly legal within Ghana, so residents can participate in casino gaming and sports betting, if they so choose.

Of course, soccer remains the country’s most popular sport, so this is wagered on in high frequencies.

Despite the fact that many players have been bought by international teams and are succeeding on high levels outside of the country, the national team of Ghana has been having its triumphs in some areas.

In 2014, the team was ranked highly enough by FIFA to start their qualifying for the World Cup of that year in the second round.

They went on to win that group and then qualified for the finals by beating Egypt 7-3. That being said, the team did not qualify for the World Cup 2018 in Russia after drawing in a match against Uganda 0-0.

This came despite a goal being scored by Raphael Dwamena in extra time. However, the referee and other officials disallowed it – claiming that the player was offside – forcing Ghana out of the competition.

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